It’s not unusual for mothers to take matters into their own hands. For Rachel Griffin Accurso, she saw a need for her son and for others and decided to do something about it.
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Rachel is a preschool teacher in New York. However, if you have a child who is 4 or younger they might know her as Ms. Rachel, the host of the YouTube Channel “Songs for Littles.” The educator and songwriter has taken the internet by storm on TikTok and YouTube thanks to her programming dedicated to helping little ones with language development, letter recognition, and more.
“Songs for Littles” was inspired by Rachel’s son Thomas. She began the channel after he was diagnosed with a speech delay.
“His first word was at 2 years and 8 months, and it was ‘mama,’ and I had waited for that for so long,” Rachel said. “As a parent you want to do anything you can to help them and it’s not our fault when our child has a speech delay. A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son.”
The show is a group effort, as Rachel produces the show in her one-bedroom apartment/recording studio along with her husband Aron, who happens to be a Broadway composer. They knew exactly what they were seeking for their son but they just didn’t see it anywhere.
“I needed experts to help me,” she told TODAY. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if there was a show that really encouraged language development and worked on these important milestones and was slow-paced and a real person and very interactive?'”
When she couldn’t find programming to meet Thomas’ developmental needs, she decided to make her own show.
“I kept searching for this show for him and we couldn’t find it, so I was like, maybe we can try to create it and maybe it would help more kids,” she said.
And she’s been doing just that. With more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, Ms. Rachel’s “Songs for Littles”is definitely well received. She has been praised by both parents and speech professionals.
Strategic in its presentation, Rachel’s approach to teaching in her music videos is simple and very effective for young learners. Her episodes include close-ups of her mouth as she helps childred learn a new word, built-in pauses for responses from the audience, and sign and body language to encourage communication of all kinds.
Rachel’s goal is simply to help as many children and families as she can.
“It always comes back to that for me – Is this good for children? Am I helping? because that’s my calling, that’s my passion,” she says.
I think we can all agree that she is definitely making a difference in children’s lives. Some parents agree so much that they even upload videos on social media to thank Ms. Rachel and show their child’s progress.
Share this story to introduce Ms. Rachel to a fellow parent. And because the songs are so catchy, don’t be afraid to sing along.
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