Babies Do See Color and Race
Babies can learn about color and race through music. Young babies do see color and race and we can learn to embrace differences through music. As soon as your baby begins to see color, they are also able to distinguish the color of a person’s skin.
Whether you recognize it or not, your baby has been introduced to the concept of race. Like so many other things in parenting, your attitude toward race will become your child’s attitude.
When Babies Learn About Race
First, babies begin to see colors when they are about three months old. Then, they can begin to tell the difference in person’s skin color. Finally, this is when they begin to develop the concept of race.
You can help your baby learn about color, race and differences in the same way we have talked about introducing music in previous posts.
How Babies Learn to See Color
When your baby is born, she can only see bold, high-contrast items at a close range (about 8-10 inches). This is the reason infant toys and books have graphic, black-and-white patterns.
Your baby’s eyes grow so they can identify and focus on objects at first. By the age of 3-4 months, your baby can tell the difference in colors.
Something else that seems even more interesting is that babies like to look at books that show faces. It turns out that your baby can process human faces using nearly adult-like levels of brain activity.
By the time your baby is five months old, he can notice the difference of whether someone has the same skin color or not as their parent or primary caregiver.
Will Your Baby Learn Your Biases?
There are a number of ways to help your baby learn about the differences in people. But, the first thing that needs to happen is for you to understand your own biases. Most of us suffer from implicit biases.
We all have them and need to identify what they are. Then we have to be willing to the do serious work of overcoming those biases. By all means, it is okay to let your child see you learn and change your attitudes.
I have taken a hard look at my attitude about racial differences. I never considered myself outwardly racist. However, I have had thoughts about different groups of people that I am not happy to admit.
But, I have worked to change those attitudes by becoming involved with organizations that bring different groups of people together. We spend time finding our common ground and working through our differences.
I also confess that I am guilty of ‘wringing my hands” and wondering what in the world can I do about this problem of racial tension. It seemed like nothing I could do would make a difference.
We Can Each Do Our Part to Make a Difference
In recent weeks, I have come to realize that I can’t solve the whole problem, but I can do what I know how to do well. I am a good Suzuki Violin and Suzuki Early Childhood Education Baby Class teacher.
My passion is to bring the Suzuki philosophy of instrumental music education to as many children and parents as possible.
One of my goals is to make a concerted effort to bring more children of color into my violin studio and Baby Classes. I can use music to reach out farther into the world and embrace differences.
My other goal is to write about the Suzuki philosophy of educating children and share it with all of you reading right now. If the Suzuki philosophy has made a difference in your family’s life, share it with others. The Suzuki philosophy is for the education and happiness of all children.
The Difference Is Really the Same
It is interesting that language was what made Dr. Suzuki realize that ALL children can learn and he formulated his Mother-Tongue Method of Education.
Some languages can be quite difficult. Yet, children learn those languages the same way wherever they live. They listen to parents and others speak.
First they learn words and phrases. Next, they put them together to make sentences. Sentences become paragraphs and language grows. So what is different (the language) is really the same (language is learned by listening).
Dr. Suzuki’s had a heart for all the children of the world. He worked tirelessly to apply the Mother-Tongue Method of Education to musical instruction.
But more than music education, the Mother-Tongue Method is a philosophy that believes that EVERY CHILD CAN LEARN. This is the first of the Suzuki Early Childhood (SECE) Beliefs
Therefore, it is possible that every child can learn to embrace the differences in people IF they see the adults in their lives modeling those attitudes.
Steps to Embracing Differences
There is one very concrete step that you can take to begin teaching your baby about differences in people. You can simply choose books, photographs, videos and toys of different people and cultures.
SECE Baby Class always ends with reading a story. Many of those stories subtly address differences in people.
Consider your circle of friends and associates. How diverse are they? Could you look for opportunities to expand your social interactions with other cultures and people of color. Then, your baby will then be exposed to those same interactions, too.
Another step you can take, and it won’t cost you anything but your time, is to talk to your child. Tell them about your own family’s diversity and others who have stood for making the world better.
Also tell about how your family members are/were smart, strong, brave, and funny. Tell family stories to your baby.
Some of my fondest memories are the stories my mother and father told about the things they did when they were children. Also, they told those stories to us often.
Then I have told those same stories to my children. I also have told them stories from my childhood.
Next, if you are bilingual, speak your native language to your baby. You will give your baby the gift of becoming bilingual as well. That ability that you nurture now will serve your baby well in the future.
SECE Baby Class Activities Help Parents Learn to Model Attitudes
SECE Baby Class presents a drum counting activity. The children stack the drums and count them in their native language. Parents who are from different countries are invited to lead the counting in their native language.
A really fun book to add your your baby’s library is Can You Count Ten Toes? by Lezlie Evans. Lezlie chose very interesting languages from around the world for this book. Some you will expect and may even know. Others will be a pleasant surprise for you to try counting.
Finally, and most importantly, the race conversation needs to begin now. If your baby is very young, it will be easier to practice it and make it routine. However, regardless of your child’s age, it’s never too late to begin the conversation. Remember, “Knowledge + 10,000 times (repetition)=Ability”.
You need that ability to influence your child to bring about the change in attitude toward differences in people. The world desperately needs you to start this conversation.
Dr. Suzuki would say that children can be trained in the ability to embrace differences in people. Ability develops early is another one of the SECE Beliefs.
Model What You Believe About Color and Race
It is up to you to model the attitudes and values that you want to see in the world. Your baby is watching you and learning.
The really sad truth is that research shows that children of ALL races start to develop a “preference for whiteness” around the age of 4-5 years old.
Children of color especially NEED to see and hear that what they look like and who they are is very important. All parents must provide an environment that nurtures growth for their children. This is another SECE Belief.
I won’t belabor the point that the current pandemic and the social and political unrest are making life very difficult. Be honest in expressing your emotions.
Babies know and feel when you are stressed. But, you must work through it and even find ways to laugh and have fun with your baby.
SECE Baby Class activities (music, singing, creative movement, and reading stories) can be a part of your routine to model the hopes and dreams you have for your baby and help create a more loving and compassionate world for all children.
Your Can Make a Difference
One way or another, babies will learn about color. They will also learn about race. Teach them about differences in people. Help them learn to make those differences part of their world.
You, as a parent, must examine your own attitudes about race and choose to make those differences part of your world as well.
Suzuki ECE Baby Class uses musical activities to bring people’s differences together that they may learn to make the world a better place for the future. That may seem like such a lofty goal.
But consider that Dr. Suzuki lived through the devastation of World War II, worked to implement his Mother-Tongue Method of Education, and turned it into a musical movement that swept the world and continues to do so even now.
Suzuki ECE is, in many ways, the culmination of his method. He began with figuring out how to teach violin to a 2-1/2 year old little boy. SECE teachers now teach the same Mother-Tongue Method to babies as young as a few weeks old.
SECE Prenatal Class seeks to present the same ideas using music to expectant parents. Dr. Suzuki even joked once that the education of an unborn child actually should begin nine months BEFORE the mother’s birth!
Babies can learn about color and race through music with their parents. What parents teach their children from birth affects the future of everyone.
On the Beautiful Heart Musical Journey with you,
Susan
Comments
In the Comments below, share what you are doing to help your little one to accept the differences in people.
“Your Musical Baby” would love it if you would LIKE us and SHARE with your friends on Facebook & Instagram!
