A mum whose son didn’t utter his first words until he was almost three years old is now fast on her way to becoming a household name thanks to her genius videos helping other children learn to speak.
Rachel Griffin Accurso – or Ms Rachel, as many parents and their kids know her – is the face of Songs For Littles, a popular YouTube account with 2.4m subscribers which teaches babies and toddlers about sounds and words.
She started making the videos after her own son Thomas experienced a speech delay. “His first word was at 2 years and 8 months – and it was mama,” she told Today.
“I had waited for that for so long and, 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.”
At the time, Ms Rachel searched online for ways she could help him, but swiftly realised there were very few resources out there.
“A lot of things I teach are things I wish I had known for my son,” she added.
Her videos have clearly struck a chord with parents and children alike, as the YouTube sensation now has more than a billion views across her videos, which she creates with the help of her husband Aron Accurso, who has worked on Broadway. (Yep, they’re a talented bunch.)
Encouragingly, Ms Rachel – who has a masters degree in music education and is currently pursuing a second masters in early childhood education – even has endorsements from child speech and language experts.
It’s generally recommended that children under 18 months old should have no screen time at all – unless video chatting.
But one paediatric speech language pathologist on Tiktok said Ms Rachel’s format is actually very similar to video chatting – and “there is good solid evidence behind some of the techniques that Ms Rachel uses in her programming”.
Parents are also huge fans. “My 2.5 year old daughter loves these videos,” said one. “She has a speech delay, and these videos absolutely have helped her.
“She gets speech therapy, and many of the activities are similar to those her therapist does with her. Very high quality screen time.”
And children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) seem to be learning more from the videos, too. “My 3 year old autistic son just loves Ms Rachel and especially enjoys circle time,” said one parent in a review.
“His language skills have improved so much since discovering your Youtube channel! Please keep the videos coming!”
On Reddit, hundreds of parents have shared their thoughts on the YouTuber and how she’s impacted their children’s development – and the verdict is overwhelmingly positive.
The only gripe some have is that the videos can get a little annoying. But mostly they agree it’s worth it, given how much their children’s speech has progressed since watching her videos.
So next time you need 10 minutes to get something done, perhaps give Ms Rachel a try. A word of warning though, you will have her songs stuck in your head for the rest of the day.