Music has thrilled and soothed people all through the centuries. Songs can cause a whole range of emotions – they can make older people feel young again, they can make depressed people feel like someone understands, and they can bring couples together with tender romantic ballads. Can it help babies develop? Research has pointed to the answer as yes.
While music can be just one way to help your baby’s brain develop, it can be a very big part. There have been studies that show that it can enhance their chances of learning things, and it can even help their behavior as they move out of baby-hood into childhood.
Yes, there are times when parents may just try to play soothing music to help their babies sleep at night so that they might have a chance themselves to grab a few hours of shuteye. But, if it is done regularly, there could be benefits besides some added sleep for the parents.
Music Can Help With Learning Languages
Babies who listen to music may be better at learning different types of languages. That is because they can pick up the rhythm of how people talk no matter what the language is.
A young brain is wired to learn languages quickly since new pathways are always being opened. If they indulge their tendencies, then they can learn more than one language. This is excellent for those who live in countries where more than one language is spoken.
It can make communication so much easier for them both personally and professionally as they grow older and enter the workforce. Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves and let them be babies first.
Music Can Change How Baby’s Brain Looks
Yes. There have been studies where scientists have looked at the auditory and prefrontal cortexes of babies who listen to music. Those two areas of the brain are affected by that activity. But music can affect not only how a baby learns but also how they interact with others around them when they become children.
Those children who listened to music as babies tended to have better personality traits like being cooperative and being willing to help other people.
Learning How To Play Musical Instruments Can Help
We are talking about how listening to music can help your baby. But the term “playing music” can also take on the active form.
While we are not suggesting that you put a guitar in your six-month-old baby’s hands and try to teach them how to play complicated music, it is not out of the realm to maybe have them try to hit a drum along with the rhythm.
Why is this important? When trying to play music, there are a lot of different parts of the body being affected. Hitting a drum also involves developing fine motor skills and getting a sort of sense of mathematical skills. They may not be conscious that they are counting out in fours, but they can get the general hang of doing it.
Language is all about cadence, too, and getting a sense of musical rhythm can get them to help learn that. They can keep trying over and over. Then, as they get the hang of that, they can start putting the pieces together and figure out what the particular words and sounds mean, and start carrying on with conversations with others.
Over the course of the years, it seems like music has become a forgotten part of the educational process, despite how beneficial it can be. Schools tend to stress other subjects over it. But music could actually benefit those students and help them become even better at those other subjects.
It could be difficult to possibly add this without extending the school day, but it is something that should be given serious thought by those in charge of the educational system.
Music is something that can be introduced even while a mother is pregnant with her baby. It can be played while the newborn is resting in their crib and as they get older. They can develop a love for music themselves and then pass that along to their own children decades later.
So, if you are bringing a baby into the world and are trying to think of the best ways to help its brain develop, playing music is one of the best things that