I am often playing little musical games with my little ones, much as you do to develop speech using rhymes.  One of our favourites at the moment is developing pitch with our 18 month old, and we’ve been playing this game since he was about a year old, but it’s always a winner.  It is really very simple, no more than repeating the word high in a very high voice – high high high high high, and then repeating the word low in a very low voice – low low low.  Its so easy to do when changing nappies, or in the car, or just any moment when you want to distract them from something.  My 3 year old joins in when we do this with the little one, and it always has the little one in peals of laughter at our funny voices.

The idea is that your little one will begin to recognise the difference in pitch, and also to connect these with the correct vocabulary of high and low.  If you pause and repeat you will be surprised to see how quickly your little one is imitating and singing back with you. I find it amazing that young toddlers are attempting to pitch match and it is also great for bonding if you pitch match to them whenever they instigate the high low game.

If you want to develop the high low game you can use instruments around the house – we make a big deal about running from one end of the piano to the other as we play high and low notes along with our singing.  If you haven’t got any instruments then listen out for high and low sounds on the TV, or find squeaky toys that are high, and big drums or saucepans that are low.