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When engaging the publishing world, we’re advised to only speak about our relevant experience. I’ve been a creative director and writer for over 20 years, but is that relevant? After all, I’ve written for airlines, wine producers, tech companies, and those aren’t for children. But what I’ve done for my clients is create manifestos and narratives, voices that feel authentic, and memorable names. That’s storytelling. For a frozen food company, I wrote a series of social media videos that were about making time to connect with family. This photo—reading to a child in a tent—is from one of my video shoots, and proves I never stray far from what I love. To learn more about my work, visit my branding site.

Language and music are two of my passions (I was a professional harpist in my younger days). And while language acquisition is well documented in child development, I studied the acquisition of musical understanding in children for my college thesis. It turns out that children learn music as part of their natural maturation, side by side with their understanding of language and their world.

But then I wondered, what about the world? Would ALL children learn like this? Are these parallels fundamental to humans around the globe? I couldn’t run experiments that large, but I studied the literature concerning language and music across many cultures. I called it Ethnomusicolinguistics. And in my interpretation, music and language indeed rise in us together, starting from infancy. The more we encourage exposure and lessons, the higher they rise.   

I always infuse my language with music and hope the melody makes the journey.

Ever since I was little, I’ve loved Automata machines. Those little paper or wooden kits where you make gears and a crank to animate a whimsical scene. It was only as an adult I learned these are a British phenomenon. Americans like to make machines that “do something.” The idea of delight being the goal is foreign to most Americans. Except when it comes to children and children’s books, where delight rules. But as we age, we’re expected to get earnest. I say crank up the delight! Click here to learn more about automata.

In collage, I met a bright student who had an extensive vocabulary, but always pronounced things incorrectly. His accents were on the wrong syllables. But as I grow to know him better, I learned he was entirely homeschooled and never heard those words spoken. He only read them.

I recently heard about people mispronouncing the tea, chamomile “cammo-meal” as “cha-momma-lay.” At first, I thought it sounded ridiculous. But then I remembered that student and was charmed all over again. It’s wonderful to learn new words and then be bold enough to try them out. That should be celebrated with a nice cup of cha-momma-lay.

We know children learn about their world as they grow, from object permanence (why peekaboo only works on the littlest kids) to understanding sense of length, volume, and then the weight of objects.

Similarly, language develops in a predictable way—children start with sounds, then single words, then they add words, and then layers of grammar complexity (plurals, verbs, conjugation, prepositions, articles).

Music should be no different, and in my study it wasn’t. I showed children between the ages of 5-7, acquire five musical concepts in this order:

• identity (the same song is recognized when performed by a different instrument/voice)
• pitch (it can be recognized performed higher or lower)
• tempo (with a change of speed)
• rhythm (when the rhythm shifts)
• contour (when notes are inverted)

Children’s growing musical understanding is based purely on living in our world, with no musical training. To me, that shows music is as a fundamentally human as language and understanding the objects around us. If only we treated music with the gravitas it deserves.

In stories, we name our characters. At home we name our kids, pets, even cars. We all think of ourselves as name experts. But there’s an actual career to name companies, products, flavors. When I’m naming for a client, I work with a team and we come up with over 1,000 potential names. I’m always amazed by the minimal crossover in our brainstorms, which shows how many ideas there are. And reminds us that we shouldn’t feel bad when an idea is rejected (999+ of mine are for every project). To see some of my names, visit my branding site.

For a company name to be good it must fit in Paisley’s Proprietary Pentagram:

• Purposeful: tells a story or creates a relevant emotion
• Distinctive: stands out and is memorable
• Familiar: meets the expectations of the reader
• Appealing: sounds and looks pleasing
• Ownable: passes trademarking if needed

For naming your cat, you’re on your own.