The Bob Dylan of the Diaper Set

Put on a favorite CD and watch a chubby 1-year-old bop to the beat; cheer a tearful 2-year-old with an impromptu dance around the room; soothe an infant to sleep with a rocking lullaby--music and young children are a natural.

No one knows that better than Hap Palmer, an award-winning, Woodland Hills-based singer-songwriter with a master’s degree in dance education. He has been making rhythm and rhymes for children to move and fall asleep to, play and learn with, for 30 years. His efforts have garnered multiple Parents’ Choice, American Library Assn., National Parenting Publication and American Video awards.

In addition to a long list of such notable recordings as “Rhythms on Parade,” “Peek-a-Boo” and “We’re on Our Way,” Palmer’s songs are the heart of the acclaimed “Baby Songs” video series, musical videos that feature real babies and toddlers just being themselves. The latest release in the series is “Baby Songs Good Night,” created around songs from Palmer’s album, “A Child’s World of Lullabies.”

Palmer, who also teaches music and movement workshops to professionals in the field of early education, embarked on his life’s vocation after his interest in songwriting and his “day job”--teaching--”just kind of came together.”

“When I started, I would sing folk songs to young children, and they kept wanting to jump up and run around,” he said. “I kept trying to get them to sit down and pay attention to the song. I started getting the idea of writing songs that children could be actively involved with, songs using movement to teach basic skills like recognition of letters, colors, number concepts, vocabulary like ‘up and down,’ ‘fast and slow,’ identifying parts of the body and directions in space, that kind of thing.”

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Young children learn about their world through physical movement, he noted. “They crawl around, they touch things, they feel things, they taste things. Their natural bent is not to sit in a chair and think about symbols, but to get up and move and deal with concrete objects. Movement tends to engage the whole child.” Adults respond the same way, he said.

“When I do teacher conferences, a lot of the workshops will be more lecture kinds of things where the teachers are sitting and taking notes and somebody’s giving a speech. As soon as I get them up and moving, a whole sense of aliveness and energy fills the room. It’s the same thing with children.”

Palmer would like adults to know that music can also be a special bonding experience with their children, one that’s not just for the musically talented.

Parents shouldn’t feel intimidated, he said. “Even if you sing a little off-key, if you enjoy singing and sing to your child often, they’ll develop a love of music. You can make up little songs about things you’re doing during the day; you can take familiar melodies and put your own words to them.”

With infants and toddlers, just “putting on different kinds of music and holding the child and moving with the child is valuable.”

For those who feel self-conscious about bursting forth a la Celine Dion or even with a chorus of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Palmer offers a comforting reminder that a young child is “the most uncritical judge you’ll ever be with.”

“So, not only will it be good for the child, it’ll be fun for you, too. Just relaxing, breathing fully, lengthening the spine and making your body alive and then letting the sound come out.”

What makes a good children’s song?

“I don’t think of writing down to a child. The characteristics of a well-crafted song are the same for adults as for a child: Lyrics that are clearly worded, and have a clear central idea, not obviously forced rhymes, a melody that expresses the feeling or the mood of the lyric--all those things are universal qualities of good songs.”

Palmer has written songs about everything from roller coasters and hippos to a tooth-brushing tiger and potty-training. The subject matter is “almost limitless.” As long as it’s “appropriate to their developmental level,” he said, “songs can be about just about anything, because children are curious and interested in everything.”

Palmer, 56, doesn’t worry about running out of ideas: He has a 3-year-old daughter and an 8-month-old granddaughter, and he works with second-graders in a class taught by his 30-year-old daughter. (He also has two sons and a stepson, ranging in age from almost 18 to 21.)

“Every so often, I’ll be working on a record and I’ll say, ‘Well, I think this is going to be my last one,’ but then more ideas come,” Palmer said. “I feel very fortunate.”

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* “Baby Songs Good Night,” Backyard Video/Anchor Bay, $12.98. (800) 910-7766, Ext. 294; https://www.babysongs.com. Other Hap Palmer releases: (818) 885-0200; https://www.happalmer.com.