Babies Love to Listen to Their Parents Sing
It’s true! All over the world, babies love to listen to their parents sing. You don’t have to be an opera singer or the next contestant on The Voice to entertain your baby. Even parents who think they can’t sing will try when they have a cranky, crying baby on their hands!
Babies respond to voices and their affects. However, studies show that they especially pay attention and respond to singing voices. Your baby even recognizes your voice before they recognize your face.
Singing is a Powerful Force
Science has been catching up with what parents have known probably since the beginning of time: singing is a powerful force. But until recently, we have not understood just how powerful it is in the development of a child.
Intellectually, Babies Love to Listen to Their Parents Sing
Recent studies show that 16 week old unborn babies respond to music played for them. At 25 weeks, they begin to process sound. Singing may serve an important role in the development of your child.
From birth, we pay strong attention to singing because of how our brains are wired. That is the reason your baby loves to listen to you sing.
We know from various studies that the adult brain is wired to listen for musical patterns. As we anticipate these patterns, the reward centers in the brain are activated. In other words, listening to a voice singing is a very satisfying activity.
Additional research also shows that singing to your baby may actually help them have less language problems in later childhood. So much so, that you may risk not singing enough to your baby according to Dr. Sally Goddard Blythe, the director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology.
The musical patterns of melodies, rhythm, rhymes, and lyrics help to prepare babies for several key developments. It turns out that listening to the words in a song helps them learn to identify individual sounds and syllables. This eventually helps them to connect letters and sounds.
Physically, Babies Love to Listen to Their Parents Sing
Singing to your baby helps their learning development. But it also affects them physically, as shown in several clinical trials. Your baby can benefit greatly from listening to you sing.
One study has shown that premature babies in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) showed some fascinating results when they were exposed to their parents singing.
Their heart and breathing rates improved and they slept better. Feeding patterns became more regular and they experienced better weight gain.
Another study showed that babies listening to their parents sing resulted in better controlled levels of cortisol (the hormone related to stress and arousal).
Whether the cortisol level was too high or too low, the effect of the singing brought the cortisol level to the proper range and kept it there.
Emotionally, Babies Love to Listen to Their Parents Sing
Finally, other studies have shown that there are emotional and social benefits for your baby when they listen to you sing. The combination of a your voice, the musical patterns, and the words of the song help your baby to focus attention on the activity.
It also creates an emotional calm for both your baby and you. Let’s face it, when things are calm, everybody feels better. They also like each other a whole lot more than when things are crazy!
In fact, when you sing to your baby, you usually raise the pitch of your voice and sing at a slower tempo (speed). The emotional character of your voice will rise. You usually are rocking or moving softly and looking into your sweet baby’s eyes.
Baby Class Singing Activities
Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) Baby Class is filled with activities that involve singing. Parents and babies sometimes sing a short “solo” in some of the activities. In other activities, they sing several verses of a song .
The musical patterns encourage memory, learning words, and developing sentence patterns. The added benefit is that you and your child are singing together.
Your Baby Will Love to Listen to You Sing!
Remember, babies focus on their parent’s voice from the beginning. Your baby will especially pay attention to your singing voice. Singing will help you and your baby develop a closer, deeper, more loving relationship. In addition, the physical, emotional, and intellectual benefits of singing cannot be overestimated.
“Where love is deep, much can be accomplished.”
Shinichi Suzuki
Share your favorite song or lullaby
I would like to begin a list of your favorite songs or lullabies that you sing to your baby. Share them in the Comments with the “Your Musical Baby” community. Then you can look for the list of songs in a future post.
On the “Beautiful Heart Musical Journey” with you,
Susan
