‘Now, let’s be a starfish!’: Learning with Ms. Rachel, song by song

Rachel Griffin Accurso hurried to get pastries on her way to a recording studio one spring morning in Manhattan. She felt hot as she exited the subway with the sun shining on her, and without thinking she took off her coat.

And so she was inadvertently transformed into her alter ego.

With her signature blue jeans, pink T-shirt and a matching headband, she became that friendly woman from the videos: the one who happily says words, chatters when necessary, waves and sings to instruct her little viewers.

She had been publicly morphed into Ms. Rachel, playfully described as the “Beyoncé for toddlers” in a TikTok comment. She has become a household name for many as she has seen her children’s videos, ‘Songs for Littles’, become extremely popular over the past year, with over 4.8 million YouTube subscribers.

“I got stuck shooting videos for everyone,” said a slightly breathless Ms. Griffin Accurso as she arrived a few minutes late at the 10th-floor studio in Midtown. She had been asked to record a few fan videos while queuing for pastries.

‘But I don’t mind. I love being able to help make people’s days better,” she added.

Then she was ready to convey her charm.

She was chatting with everyone on set, whether they were artists or technical staff. She asked, What time were the actors’ Broadway shows on that day? What had everyone been watching on TV lately? Wasn’t it cool to film in a real studio instead of her one bedroom apartment?

When the calls came for light, camera, action, she smiled broadly and her voice rose an octave.

“Can you be a crab?” Mrs. Rachel cooed into the camera. “Now let’s be a starfish!”

She made it look easy because the work that made her an internet celebrity to the tykes is more than a performance to her. “People call Mrs. Rachel’s acting, but it’s really just who I am, except for a more excited version,” said Ms. Griffin Accurso. “I have found my calling.”

Hardly any money has been spent promoting or advertising “Songs for Littles,” said Ms. Griffin Accurso. Though she is also wildly popular on other social media platforms like TikTok And InstagramMs. Griffin Accurso has the most followers YouTube, which remains the platform on which her work generates the most revenue from paid advertising. The business became so successful in recent months that Ms. Griffin Accurso’s husband, Aron Accurso, quit his full-time job as an associate musical director and associate conductor for Broadway’s “Aladdin.”

The road to success

Mrs. Griffin Accurso grew up in the small community of Springvale, Maine, never quite sure what her career path would be. But she knew she loved children and served people. A job with kids in a Boys & Girls Club first inspired the idea of ​​combining those interests with music, although it would take several years for those two passions to come together.

She moved to New York City on a whim in 2009 after reading a quote from Mark Twain about people regretting not chasing their dreams.

She worked as a nanny and took odd jobs. Less than a year later, she met Mr. Accurso at a Unitarian church on the Upper East Side and found a kindred spirit.

Mr. Accurso has a clear memory of their second date, when she asked him, “Don’t you just love Mr. Rogers?” She was referring to her fondness for Fred Rogers, the friendly television host who spread a kind message to generations of children.

She and Mr. Accurso pursued a collaboration, composing songs and making a musical about mental health. Ms. Griffin Accurso received her master’s degree in music education from New York University and began working as a music teacher at Bedford Park Elementary School in the Bronx. They married in 2016 and had a son, Thomas, in 2018.

Mrs. Griffin Accurso gave up teaching full time to be with her son. Around his first birthday, she noticed that he was behind on important milestones, particularly in speech. “His mouth wasn’t connecting to his brain,” she said.

The couple sought speech therapy services, but Ms. Griffin Accurso wanted to supplement his knowledge. Her search ran dry, so she started making videos.

She filmed close-ups of her mouth to show the pronunciation of words and recorded her versions of nursery rhymes, using voice, sign language and imagery. She also recorded music lessons she taught in person, and the couple posted the videos to YouTube. They thought it wouldn’t hurt if others found them helpful.

The videos struck a chord. “It makes so much sense to everyone, but to me it feels like an accident,” she said of her success.

Learn speech

Maura Moyle, an associate professor of speech pathology and audiology at Marquette University, said Ms. Rachel’s videos she saw included important techniques speech therapists use to help children, such as speaking slowly, saying simple sentences and repeating them.

Research shows that young children are attracted to “parentese” or “motherese” — the kind of “baby talk” the videos mainly contain, in which the voice is raised and facial expressions are exaggerated, said Dr. Moyle.

“She gets babies to pay attention to language and pay attention to speech sounds,” said Dr. Moyle. The videos are not a substitute for speech therapy or children’s interaction with adults or caregivers, she said, but they can be “a great resource to use.”

Joseph Viramontez and his wife, Kristyl Parker, struggled to get speech therapy and other treatments for their 2-year-old daughter, Aranea. Many nights he went to bed feeling like a failure because his daughter regularly had tantrums, and he and his wife didn’t understand what she was trying to tell them, he said.

Mr. Viramontez, 29, tried to accept the terrible thought that he would never hear her say, “I love you.”

Even state programs in Texas, where they lived before recently moving to Pennsylvania, were out for more than a year and insurance declined additional testing for autism, he said. Mr Viramontez said his wife heard about Ms Rachel through TikTok.

Aranea’s parents noticed a change within a month of watching Ms. Rachel’s videos. Instead of yelling when she was hungry, she rubbed her belly and used words, “blooming with her communication,” as he put it. She even said those three words Mr. Viramontez longed to hear.

From idea to video

Whether it’s teaching nursery rhymes, discussing emotions, or helping kids talk, every “Songs for Littles” video starts with a theme. And each theme comes with a bucketful of research into related topics.

For an upcoming video on skills teachers look for in pre-kindergarten children, Ms. Griffin Accurso spent weeks analyzing the requirements in different states and reading research papers. She wants to do well, she said.

Ms. Griffin Accurso and her husband work together on scripting and sketching scenes, as well as determining the actors they need. Mr. Accurso edits and writes the music for the videos with the help of an outside editor, who also creates animations for them. The pair rehearse the songs, which can be popular children’s tunes performed in the manner of Mrs. Rachel, or original compositions by her and her husband, who also plays the part of the puppet Herbie.

The team wants every video to be inclusive of gender, disability and race. A regular performer, Jules Hoffman, is non-binary, which caused a backlash from some viewers earlier this year. Although the negative response pushed Ms. Griffin Accurso to take a short break from social mediashe says she remains fearless to represent a wide variety of perspectives.

‘A lifesaver’

Brandice Elliott, 33, first heard of Ms. Rachel through a mom group online. Mrs. Elliott had just returned to work full-time after maternity leave and needed time for chores. So she tried the videos, and they worked.

When Adeya, her 1½-year-old daughter, hears Ms. Rachel, her attention shifts to the screen, Ms. Elliott said. If toys are put away in the video, Adeya will put away toys. When Mrs. Rachel calls out “The Ants Go Marching”, Adeya will march in her place. And she claps along, mimicking the gesture of bubble gum being stuck to her hand to the beat of “Icky Sticky Bubble Gum.”

“Ms. Rachel has really been a lifesaver for us,” said Ms. Elliott. “When I put those videos on, I know that Ms. Rachel is not only going to sing, but she’s going to teach her.”

Ms. Elliott is even more amazed at how much she gets out of the videos. She picks up on the sign language and pays attention to the tone of the voice. She finds herself asking her toddler if she’s hungry, as Mrs. Rachel would, and she gets an answer.

“Mrs. Rachel is our Mr. Rogers,” Ms. Elliott said. “She’s really changing how the kids learn these days.”

Mrs. Griffin Accurso, for her part, often lies awake at night thinking about what she could do to help children who have no access to education.

She wants to keep speaking and singing for the little ones.

“I never get tired of singing ‘Icky Sticky Sticky Bubble Gum,'” she said, “so I must be meant to sing it.”