Frequently Asked Questions

There are many benefits for attending a music group with your child, the most important being that you and your child will have a special fun time shared together each week.In addition to this you will pick up great tips on how you can use music in your day to day parenting at home.

For babies, music has been shown to support neurologic, emotional and early language development. Baby groups provide little people with opportunities to interact musically with you and other babies, and to explore a musically rich environment.

For toddlers, there are many benefits beyond having fun. Music has been shown to support cognitive, social, emotional, physical and behavioural development. This includes recent research that also supports the use of music in early childhood to improve self-regulation and sensory integration.

For pre-schoolers, music helps young children think and plan their movements and actions, prepare and participate in social and physical activities, sing and thus rehearse language skills, listen and respond to cognitive and thinking tasks, learn how to regulate their emotions, and of course, it helps to develop early music awareness and concepts such as beat work, pitch discrimination and melody recognition.

At Boppin’ Babies all of our music is played live and is voice led. This is because research supports the use of live voice led music when working with children under 5 years of age. It also allows the children to be the focus of the session, as our staff interact musically in ways that are meaningful to the children in the moment.
Boppin’ Babies is informed by empirical research in music therapy and music education. Our program is constantly updated and our staff highly qualified and trained in order to provide the very best for your children.

Yes. All parents / carers participate in our sessions with us, singing songs and playing instruments and participating in musical games and activities. The focus is on you singing and interacting with your child, there is no pressure to ‘perform’.

Yes definitely! Research shows that your child prefers your voice over all others. They think you rock!! We aim to give you the confidence to use music at home and rock the house.

During the sessions all singing is in a group, there is no pressure on you to sing or perform. Rather, we use the music to drive developmental outcomes for the children and to have fun.

We hope by attending you will feel more confident to use music on your own at home each week.

Yes. Our programs are designed with a music therapy focus for young children and we understand that young children don’t sit still for 45 minutes. Our sessions are designed in a way that children participate actively and intently and then we move on to something that requires less concentration. Music allows children to learn how to attend, focus and regulate at their own pace, so the session should be very beneficial for your child.

Yes. Music by its very nature is sociable so should in fact support your child to participate at their own level and in their own time without them having to actively engage with other children straight away. They can participate by listening, watching, playing instruments with you.

But music has magical powers too, and it is wonderful to watch shy children come out of their shells and start to participate more actively over the weeks, in their own time and when they are ready.

Boppin’ Babies sessions have a unique relaxed and social atmosphere as we understand the importance of supporting parents as well as children to get out of the house and meet others and make friends while attending our groups. However, you will get the most out of the sessions if you:

• Join in! Children learn through modelling and the person they most want to sing with is you! Don’t be shy, only your child is listening. Sing and dance and play the instruments with gusto!! Our group leaders have strong voices so you can easily hide behind their strength if you don’t feel confident singing. If you don’t know the words to particular songs and would like to learn feel free to ask the group leader to provide you with some song sheets. We also often have song lyrics up on the Boppin’ Babies Facebook page.
• Listen to the group leader. Not only will you learn great ways to use music at home, you will be modelling to your child good attending and listening skills, both very important pre-academic skills the children will need for starting their schooling in the future.
• Put your phone down. We understand that sometimes you have to take a call, but if you can avoid it do! Your child wants to be with you in the moment, so spend these 45 minutes together without interruption if at all possible, these years will be over sooner than you know it (trust me!)
• Remember to be in the moment, not just recording it. Please feel free to take photos and videos of your child. But don’t forget to put your phone down and join in too; don’t miss the fun of doing. Please check with our staff first if you wish to video them singing in the session.

And remember, your child can participate in many different ways and still be gaining great benefits from the program.

• All littlies have their own personalities, likes and dislikes. Many kids will be really excited by some parts of the session and not that enticed by others. Active learning still happens while sitting, watching and listening and wandering is actually fine too. As long as all the children are safe and supervised and remain in the general area they are still getting the benefits.
• Chat with your group leader if you are concerned about the way your child is participating (or not), and remember that all children take time to learn new routines and structures and respond positively to them. It may take many weeks for littlies to get the gist of what’s happening and really start to enjoy it so give them time.

Let your tot’s unique characteristics shine through without placing too many restrictions on them. Music is all about creativity after all and there are many ways to play the drum that aren’t necessarily conventional! It is all good learning.

Our community groups are conducted by Registered Music Therapists who have a Masters Degree in Music Therapy, and an undergraduate degree in music, education or both. Our staff are highly qualified because we believe that children deserve the best. Our childcare groups are conducted by music therapists and music teachers.

While we understand children want to snack throughout the day, it is best if you try to avoid feeding your child during the 45 minute session. This is because there are often children in the groups who have severe food allergies.

Also, eating can sometimes be a real distraction to other children. Breastfeeding babies is actively encouraged and supported during our sessions so don’t feel concerned at all.

If you suspect you or your child are contagious, please stay away from the session to avoid potentially sharing germs. Make up sessions are easily booked at another venue or session time within the same term.

If your child was seemingly well at the time of the session but later develops symptoms such as a rash or high fever, then please contact Boppin’ Babies.

Any instruments that are mouthed or in close contact with children are disinfected between sessions so as to minimise the risk of germs spreading.