Customer Reviews

Time to Sing!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When you are the mother of a child with special needs, whose child can for the first time "sing along" with the songs, it's a dream come true. Our favorite song features the alphabet, but instead of having the letters sung as a string of letters all together, this version has you repeat the letters one by one. I cried the first time my daughter was able to sing the alphabet. The songs are not too slow that they sound odd or anything. In fact, when we are in the car with my daughter's friends; they don't notice anything. I also use some songs with my ESL students at school. If you have a child who needs more "time to sing" or you just want to have "time to sing" with your little one, this CD will work for you.

As the previous reviewer said, this CD is done in a very professional way. The songs are beautiful. Styles are varied. I like it so mcuh that I am going to buy it. I borrowed it from a public library and used it as a teaching tool for the pre school kids. With a little creativity, you can use the slow version of the songs very well. Since all the songs are slower, you can teach kids sign languages and other things, you can even ask them what's the different about the different versions of a song.

The front of the CD says "Helps Build Language Skills" and part of the description on the back says "...the words are sung at a slower tempo so that any child can sing along - even a child just learning to speak". The CD doesn't fail to offer what it clearly states if you read it!

My children appreciated the different ways these songs were sung; for instance "If You're Happy and You Know It" had an African rhythm to it.

The words were spoken very clearly and I was able to sign along without having to do it so rapidly my toddler couldn't follow.

This CD gets the interest of my 33 month old toddler and he likes to listen to it while his older siblings and I sign along with it. I would say that is money well spent!

This is the most unique children's music CD I have come across in a long time! I originally bought the CD for my 4 year old but found my older child enjoying it as well. Then I was pleasantly surprised to hear my 2 year old picking up on the words and singing the songs after only listening to it for about one week. While I understand (from reading the packaging) that this CD assists children who have difficulty with speech (mine do not), I found it to be beneficial to young children in general. We especially like the different beats and variations on songs. Our favorite was the ethnic flair in "if you're happy and you know it"!

I have already bought seven more and given them as gifts to new parents and preschool teachers for holiday gifts. I have gotten nothing but ovewhelming thanks and appreciation from recipients. I highly recommend it to anyone who would like to introduce or reinforce their child's love of music.

We bought this cd for our daughter who has Down Syndrome. She is 6 years old but still has difficulty articulating words together in a sentence and will often skip over words in songs because she cannot sing them as fast. This cd allows kids like my daughter to really hear the words clearly. Although it is slower than the songs would normally be, it is great for kids who have a delay because they have the time to process what they just heard and repeat it back more accurately. Then, when they try to sing the songs at the regular speed, they can do so with more accuracy and comprehension. Our daughter still loves her other cd's, but this just gives her one more way to help her with her speech skills. We plan to get the Christmas cd as she listens to Christmas music all year long!!! :

This is a replacement CD for us. It is a great CD but I was blown away by the price on Amazon. Surely it must be a misprint, repeated several times. I looked closed at the contents and, unless I missed something, it appears to be the same as the one we bought a few years ago for the normal price. Further, it appears to be the same content as the one I just bought from The Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association for a normal price, about $85 less than that shown on Amazon.

I think that for special needs kids, children who are a little slower to talk, or kids just having problems with anunciation or expression, this CD presents an incredible opportunity in being able to share traditional, fun, upbeat and lively children's music with your kids. The notion of slowing down the words, if not the music, is fantastic as it gives kids a better grounding in what is being said, proper anunciation, etc.

The only knock I have against the CD is that the voices are quite operatic. I think this is an interesting choice as the delivery is certainly emotive and forceful, but I think it would have worked with the intent a little better if the singers weren't so operatic and instead sung in a clear, even, and less ornate fashion.

Overall, a fatnastic idea; but one that slightly works against its purpose.

I was given this CD by a friend who performs on it. According to the liner notes, it was developed with help from a Speech Pathologist who was having trouble finding children's music that could facilitate speech. It may be the only one of it's kind, I don't know. Parents of children with speech delays might find this CD helpful. This CD should really be marketed for that purpose.
First of all, the musicians and singers on this CD aren't the run-of the-mill, like so many children's cds. They are a professional musicians and singers. The versions of the songs are a bit unusual to listen to- because the tempos have been slowed down, way down. Unfortunately, you can't listen to samples of the songs on Amazon.
Below I describe how I fell each selection sounds:
1)wheels- beautiful voice, sounds like something from Kindermusik collection.
2)Aiken Drum- Western style. I suppose you could do the ASL signs for spaghetti, meat ball, cheese, and Pizza to it easily
3)I love You- soft and slow, not like Barney version
4)Shake your Sillies- Because of the slow tempo, this song doesn't click, shaking "slowly" doesn't seem to feel right. Nancy Cassidy's version is probably the best I have heard, they should have left this off the cd because it just sounds strange.
5)1,2 Buckle...-counting w/ music, you could do gestures/home signs for this.
6)Teensy weensy spider- This reminded me a lot of the songs on the Storytelling CD from Songs for Learning collection from Newbridge Publishing. Soft, sweet and slow
7)Hokey Pokey- left and right, good instrumentalists
8)Wibbly Wobbly-I understand where the Speech Pathologist is going with this, but it is very heavy on the Pittsburgh accent. Bobby is now Baw-bee, Tommy is now Tawh-mee.
9)Alphabet- traditional
10)Jack n Jill- Great voice, reminds me of Kindermusik CD which are good
11)Twinkle- traditional, pretty sounding
12)Happy and Know it- This is not a jump around version. It is a sit down with mom and dad and let's go over you sounds song. carribean style, beautiful instruments and voices. Probably helpful to very little ones w/ speech delay.
13)Baby Bumblebee- big on the rhyming, verses I hadn't before heard, but kids might enjoy laughing along with. Tango style.
14)Pop! Goes...This reminded me of Burnadette Peters. Body part ID, left/ Right
15)I'm a teapot-Great big male voice, lots of strings
16)Bingo- I know the purpose of this CD is to SLOW down the tempo, but this lacks the energy to keep children interest. There is so much time between letters, they forget what they were spelling.
17)You are Special- Ode to Fred Rogers. Neighbor Aber can hold his own. I personally believe if anyone is going to fill Mr. Roger's sneakers, it is going to be him.
18)Apples and Bananas- Has a slow tempo- this song could actually have Cued Speech done to go along with it. Which could be a tool to learning all of the vowel hand positions of cued speech.
19)5 little Frogs-perfect fromation of syllables, #'s , use of adjectives
20)Old McD-latin style, upbeat
21)Mr Sun-Probably the all time best version of this song I have heard. The singer and musicians are excellent.
22)Head and Tummy- Good sit on mom and dad's lap and do together song.
23)10 Little Indians-I thought the PC police outlawed songs like this. It's a chant with counting. They could have said "crayons" instead of indians. The music behind the singing is however very good. The singer sounds a lot like Tom Green, sorry!
24)5 Little Monkeys-chant- good background music
25)Sing!- Sesame Street song, nice. Good wrap up of CD.

I know that some of Pittsburgh's most talented went in on this CD. I really think it suits it's purpose well in helping children separate the speech sounds, but the Speech Pathologist really should have had some one else sing the selections he sang. The musicans and trained talented singers make this CD.

Finally, I tried to use this in a preschool setting and it really didn't work out. It is much better suited to at home listening. I am not a speech patologist, but I know children well. I hope this CD benefits the families it is geared toward.

THe arrangements are very original which is great as background music but makes them hard to sing along with, unless you do it every day.

I was very disappointed with this CD. I teach preschool and thought that this would be an upbeat, lively CD; instead I found it very slow and drug out. My kids are big fans of Dr. Jean, her CD's are fun and quick. This CD was not at all what I thought it would be, it was WAY too slow.