Guest Post: Supporting Daily Transitions Through Song in the Early Years
Ruth Harris talks about transitions and how she came to create “Singing SENCO”- a free bank of easy to sing “songs of transition” to support daily transitions in nurseries, childminders, schools, and home.
*The following guest post represents the author’s personal view and does not necessarily represent the view of the Birmingham Early Years Networks (BEYN) as a whole. Any issues or questions arising from the content of this post should, therefore, be directed to the author and not BEYN.
Interested in writing a guest post for the BEYN blog? Visit the Write for Us page for more info.
Let’s talk about transitions and change!
Love it or hate it, change and transition is a part of life. Some people seem to thrive with lots of change, but many of us find it a tricky! This is especially the case where we feel that we have no control over the circumstances or the timing, or if the transition/change comes out of the blue.
Transitions and Change
As adults, we have more influence over what happens to us, we have the skills to negotiate, control and be prepared for changes. For example, we get to choose when we go to bed, have lunch, or put our coat on, we have more ownership over the tasks we are required to complete.
We are able to make subconscious predictions of what might happen in different situations, the possible demands and timescales as we have life experience which informs our expectations. This all contributes to our ability to handle everyday change.
Imagine for a moment that you find yourself in an unknown country, the people around you do not speak in a way that you understand, you are in a building you do not know and there are lots of people around you who seemingly know what’s going on. You have no reference point or way of predicting what is going to happen….
How do you feel?
It’s possible you will experience anxiety, distress, confusion, and be in a state of high alert.
Imagine now, that you find an activity that feels safe and familiar to you, and you become involved in it, perhaps you find a puzzle that you know how to do, or some kind of craft that you have experience of. Perhaps you start to feel a little less stressed, there is some element of predictability, something you can control.
Unprepared transitions from activity to activity throughout the day can be particularly stressful for children with SEND
What would your reaction be if suddenly someone comes along, making lots of noises and gestures you really do not understand and begins to take the puzzle away, and put it in a box in a cupboard? And then they take you by the hand and lead you, but you have no idea where you are going or what is going to happen?
For some of the children who attend our settings, this is what the world will feel like. Particularly if they don’t yet have a good understanding of language, they are new to an Early Years setting or room, or for some reason, either through sensory or cognitive differences they are unable to gain enough meaning from the world around them.
Their anxiety levels may well be high, and unprepared transition from activity to activity might well end in a “meltdown”, non-engagement, or challenging behaviour. Running off when it’s time to come inside from outside play, meltdowns at tidy up time, shouting and crying at the request of stopping an enjoyable activity…
Sound familiar?
When considering our nursery or early years provision therefore, we need to consider how we prepare and support children through transitions within each day. Much is made of larger transitions, and rightly so. For example, when it’s time for children to be going to school, there is much preparation that happens to make sure our children are as ready as they can be. How often, though do we look at our daily routines and transitions and give thought to how we prepare our children for these?
Thinking About Daily Transitions
Children lining up at preschool at the beginning/end of playtime is an example of a daily transition
For a long time, I have been involved in the education of children with additional needs of all kinds and all ages, up to 19.
In recent years, Early Years has been my focus. However, one of the things that was consistently needed throughout all these ages was routine and predictability within the daily curriculum, and lots of preparation for change.
Looking back, the one thing that I have consistently implemented within my teaching is the use of music, particularly at times of transition. The types of music and songs I used always varied according to the age of the children and the resources I had available to me, but the way in which I used them never did.
Key transitions in the day were always marked by music. I think, initially, this was accidental, those who know me will say that I am a little bit of a music fanatic and this reflected in my teaching. However, as I did this, I noticed a consistent pattern - no matter the age of the learners I worked with, the children/students, even those who did not follow instructions or show understanding or spoken language, began to show awareness of the songs used at times of transition.
After a while children who did not follow instructions, or had meltdowns when encouraged to join a circle time, would, in response to a song, independently fetch a chair and join the group, or join us at the table for snack, or get their coat for outside play, or bag for home time. Now, don’t get me wrong, this did not solve all my problems, make our classroom harmonious and solve all meltdowns, but it did make the curriculum run more smoothly, reduce the amount of meltdowns, and increase the independence and understanding of quite a lot of children.
Using Music to Enhance Transitions
Music can be used to enhance transitions at home too, for example using a particular song to signify it’s time to wash your hands for dinner
As I continually used music throughout the day at times of transition, I started to develop an ethos for their use:
The music used for transitions shouldn’t be prevalent in any other activities within the day (for example a re-working of a nursery rhyme that may appear during a “song time” or music session)
The music should be short enough to be repeated, that way, we could always let the music run to the end of the song so that there was a clear point that the time of transition had ended
The music should always play/be sung for at least 2 minutes, to give enough time for warning and understanding.
The songs of transition became an integral and essential part of the curriculum itself and NEVER got missed out, even if it made “teaching” time shorter or play later
The songs always had an element of engagement to them, for example knee pats/a movement routine or a required response
The songs stayed consistent even if staff got fed up of them!
The songs were used alongside objects of reference, signs, and symbols
As I have found my feet in the world of Early Years, I have continued to promote using music to enhance transitions as I am convinced that any extra layer of preparation and understanding around transition, and clues to what is happening to our children, is a good thing. However, apart from the notorious tidy up song, uptake on using this method has been slow. This got me thinking why this was?
Firstly, I think there was a barrier around resources and access to music players. Secondly, staff did not have time to find appropriate songs or the finances to purchase music. Thirdly, there was an issue around the confidence to implement it.
I had been wondering what could be done about this; whatever it was, it needed to be free, easy to implement, and needed minimal resources and training time.
Singing SENCO: Communication and Music Matters
At 2:30 AM one Friday morning in April, I awoke with the idea of writing easy to sing, simple, nursery rhyme style songs to aid transitions, and there in the dark, I grabbed some manuscript paper and wrote 5 songs of transition!
Each song is focused around a key time of transition within the day; currently there are nine songs (with more in the pipeline!):
Getting ready to finish
Snack time
Home time
Bed time
Dinner time
Lining up
Going inside
Group time
Tidy up
With the help of my wonderful colleague, Theresa, who is a Makaton trainer, the songs now also have signs that accompany them to help add another layer of meaning.
Once I had mastered the skills of videoing and editing and got over the initial cringe of seeing and hearing myself on camera, the videos eventually made it onto YouTube and then, later, onto Facebook. Singing SENCO was born!!
Each video teaches a song and if you do the video once you should have done it enough to “know the song”.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether people use the resource I have created or something else.
What is important is that children have clear transitions that give lots of preparation time to make the day predictable and understandable, supported by objects of reference, signs and symbols/ pictures. However, if you don’t know where to start, then “Singing SENCO” on YouTube and Facebook is a great place to begin!
About the Author
Ruth Harris,
Singing SENCO
Ruth Harris has over 20 years experience as a teacher for children with SEND and additional needs, and currently works as an Area SENCO for PVI nurseries in Birmingham.
She is passionate about meeting the needs of all children using Alternative and Augmentative Communication and writing, singing and making music.
YouTube: Singing SENCO
Facebook: @SingingSENCO