This thread is beautiful and truly awe-inspiring. It moves me to tears over and over again. I'm going to repeat catspaw's words: "This is the singularly most amazing thread I have encountered at the 'Cat.... I am deeply honored and humbled to share this community with you."

Night Owl, I have a cousin who was brain-damaged by a seizure at birth. The doctors told his mother there is definitely a different part of the brain that handles music. We have sung together, and he sang fluently, no struggles with the words. His favorite was "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well." I once read that sometimes people with a stuttering problem can sing their words instead of saying them. I think it would be very worth while to try this with other communication problems.

Another possible source of the kind of music you're looking for is the "What Fond Delight" tape by Phil Cooper and Margaret Nelson. It has "Roseville Fair," "Dumbarton's Drums," The Old Mama Fish and Her Little Fishies Three, Mole In the Ground, etc. It was intended to be a lullabye tape.