Attention & Listening: Glockenspiel Glasses

Music, Memory & Attention

Music has been found to have a powerful influence on attention and mood in the short term, and a wide range of academic skills in the long term, including especially mathematics.

Today’s game plays with sound, and develops auditory-spatial skills (paying attention to the source and frequency of the sound/note), auditory sequencing and auditory sequential memory.

Set up & Game Play

You will need 1 glass for each note of the song you pick to sing/play, water and a spoon to play each glass.

Good songs to start with include:

– Mary Had A Little Lamb (4 notes)

– Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (6 notes)

Play or sing the song, pour water into each glass, experiment with the water levels, testing to match with each note of the song until you have the whole song worked out. If your child doesn’t have the patience to work it out with you, work out all but one or choose just one note for your child to hit when you sing the song together.

Variations

1. Instead of using glasses, you can use bottles that you blow into with varying water levels – this has the benefit of working on breath control for speaking skills and for calming/improving attention.
2. Vary positions you play in – tall kneeling, standing, sitting, side sitting
3. Change the words of the songs to include metalinguistics (literacy)
4. Play the song taking turns to play the notes
5. Try playing in time to a metronome (free metronome apps are available for all smart phones and tablets)
6. A nice activity for small groups – try tuning to a toy glockenspiel – match sounds of the water to the notes of the glockenspiel.

Also Works On: Joint position sense; literacy & maths skills; memory; problem solving; Co-ordination (bilateral integration; rhythmic control)