Sing to Your Baby
Creating a Foundation for Lifelong Music Development
Music has always been a part of my life as well as my children’s. With my children it started a long time ago during those 9 months of pregnancy. My baby was always listening, absorbing, taking in the music and motion from the outside. It was important to me to introduce the concept of music early on. Even after birth, our bedtime routine revolved around the lullabies played in their nursery and the many nights we rocked them to sleep. I incorporated music and play at the breakfast table, engaging and captivating my little ones attention. Music was fun and stimulating. It was a great outlet to provide the much-needed stimulation required in a baby’s day-to-day routine.
It wasn’t until nursery school that I signed up for a music and movement class. Week after week, I joined the music circle and sang with my son and the other children and parents. I was enjoying the experience of being part of something involving music and community. I looked forward to my special bonding time with my son. And I looked forward to singing with my son.
What I gained from my music class experience was the fact that music not only helps to increase that ever so important parent child bond, but music class also gave my son an experience to learn from other children. And while my son was learning and engaging with the other children in class, I was able to connect with the other parents in class. Exchanging those common parenthood stories – creating those long lasting connections with other families who have now developed into longtime friendships.
The Gordon Institute of Musical Learning has stated, “The early years of life are crucial for establishing a foundation for lifelong music development. A child’s musical experiences from babies to age five have a particularly profound impact on the extent to which they will be able to understand, appreciate and achieve in music as an adult. Children must be exposed to a rich variety of music during these years in order to develop the necessary readiness for formal music learning when they are older.”
So knowing what I know now, I only wish I had started music class even earlier than the nursery school years. Studies have shown that babies learn music in a very similar way that they learn a spoken language. Teaching your baby to speak involves day-to-day exposure to language, and so does developing your baby’s musical side. Day-to-day exposure to music is key, and it is important that we give them that opportunity early on. With so many baby gadgets and stimulation toys, singing to your baby so often gets left out or forgotten. Studies have also shown that children learn through movement. So by swaying, tapping and moving to music with your baby you are in turn helping with their musical development.
Although my children are no longer babies – music still remains a key element in their lives. Along with their piano, cello and chorus, we often sing together at home and in the car. And even as an eight year old, my son is still mesmerized by the chants and rhymes we are doing in our early childhood music and movement classes. So remember to keep singing, moving and playing with your baby . . . not only for their musical development but also to strengthen that everlasting parent child bond.