Our Musical Audiobooks are now on Yoto! A lot of people have been asking us why we chose the Yoto player to premier the latest – and possibly greatest! – addition in Rockford’s Rock Opera’s series of children’s musical audiobooks, The End of Infinity.

As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, more and more over the last 10 years, we’ve become aware of how screen-bound children are becoming.

Although of course there’s nothing inherently wrong with screens, and indeed since the COVID-19 crisis, so many children have relied on screens in order to be educated. There has to be a time during which children are allowed to be entertained screen-free. As a lover of audio (who isn’t?) I can see how important it is to have a way of children entertaining themselves that doesn’t mean they’re fixed to a screen and indeed fixed to somebody else’s vision of what they should be imagining. Whether that’s within a computer game, a video, or an app. The wonderful thing about the Yoto player, or indeed any audio player of course is that it allows children, not only to use their imagination and to travel to whatever the worlds the author has created but also to play while listening – whether that’s with Lego, drawing or anything else.

Audiobooks free minds

Sound still allows children to use their brains, to imagine, to picture or maybe to sing along in the case of our musical stories.

When we first created Rockford’s Rock Opera and Lost on Infinity musical audiobooks we weren’t ourselves parents. (Some people find that quite incredible considering that these were stories written for children but then again I’ve never really grown-up). But now with a child of our own (who’s now 8) we absolutely realised the importance of imagination and ‘free thought’. As any parent will know the young child’s mind is a sponge – it’s extraordinary how much they learn how quickly. However, it’s also very clear how little they learn and how little their brain is actually operating while playing many computer games.

Although of course, you can’t keep a child away from computers, it’s an important part of their lives these days and will play an important part of their lives to come, its sometimes better to give them, making their minds work harder.

Discover our Musical Books on Yoto

It’s for this reason that we’re so pleased to be partnered with Yoto, a wonderful British company with a great piece of technology, so beautifully designed for children… and parents. And it’s why we made the decision to premiere our new musical story with them. If you read other blogs on the Rockford’s Rock Opera website you’ll see there’s lots of research regarding the value of audio stimulation in terms of learning both for children and adults. So what I’m saying here is not just the view of a concerned parent, it’s backed up by science.

I do hope you’ll get the opportunity to experience the End of Infinity musical audiobook and all of our musical stories on Yoto – plus many other wonderful stories –and that you and your children will discover something you can share together and remember for many years to come.