Babies Need Music
Guest Blog from Helen Willberg, Music and ECE Teacher
In the womb, the developing baby hears sounds and develops the listening part of the brain ahead of the seeing part. Babies are born already preferring the sound of their mother’s voice – and very soon the main carers’ voice. Babies perceive speech first as music and process language in the Aural brain. Engaging in music builds better brains, and grows humans! (The Music Advantage 2020 written by Dr Anita Collins). Music can soothe, (lullabies) connect, and stimulate (engaging in musical play with significant others).
Music is in every culture in the world, and our particular way of speaking to babies is instinctive even in teenage boys! It is sometimes called ‘motherese’ and uses a higher ‘crooning’ pitch (and works with animals as well). When we hum or sing a lullaby while gently and rhythmically rocking, walking, patting, and rubbing our baby’s backs they may soothe and soon associate the sound and the motion and touching with safety and security. As well as hearing the sound and feeling the motion the baby is aware of the chest and throat vibrations coming from the person humming, and even the heartbeat they have been accustomed to in the womb. Some babies like to touch the lips or the throat to feel the vibrations. There is another value in this: the stressed mother or carer will also calm as s/he takes deep breaths to sustain the sound and moves gently to the rhythm. Music that you find relaxing will also often have a relaxing effect on your baby.
As you move through your routines toward sleep, incorporating songs that you like will become a signal for approaching sleep and a useful way to make a strange bed or place feel familiar. My favourites were ‘Morningtown ride’, and ‘Wynken Blynken and Nod’, both 60’s folksongs, you will have your own favourites!
As your child grows, songs can be sung by the child, combined with, for example, rocking or patting a teddy bear, or soft toy. Taking deep breaths and singing Oooh ooh (as in ‘I’m the Wind I Breeze and Blow’) or ‘Lullaby of the Rain’ promotes calming and relaxation. Almost any song sung gently and softly can promote calming and soothing. Gentle exercising combined with gentle chants can be conjured with ideas – ‘stretch and curl’, ‘rub and pat’ ‘roll, roll, roll, roll’.
Children like whatever they get to know and associate with play and interaction. Having a repertoire of fingerplays, croons, and nursery rhymes is invaluable. Those despised and sometimes meaningless ‘Nursery’ rhymes handed down from our forebears contain rhythms and rhymes and patterns that give time-honoured cultural ground on which to develop a sense of self and playfulness that is valuable, and can make children comfortable in groups where there is a shared store of songs. Our growing store of waiata is becoming much loved in this context. It can be a lovely thing to ask parents and grandparents what are the songs they remember from childhood – this can be a precious link between generations that are often separated in this current society.
Best wishes for your musical beginnings with your child.
Helen Willberg