How do children often showcase their ability to play with sounds?

Children frequently showcase their ability to play with sounds through activities like singing songs and chanting because these practices engage them in manipulating rhythm, melody, and phonemic awareness. This playful interaction with sounds enhances their ability to identify and differentiate between various sound patterns and contributes to their emergent literacy skills. When children sing or chant, they practice pronunciation, stress, and intonation, which are all vital components of developing language skills. This type of sound play allows them to experiment with phonetics in a fun and enjoyable way, reinforcing their comfort and familiarity with spoken language. In contrast, while storytelling, reading books aloud, and drawing pictures all contribute to literacy development, they do not specifically highlight the playful manipulation of sound in the same engaging manner as singing and chanting.