Your baby would love to learn music, even before they can speak!

Babies are born to dance and move to music, and sing in their own language.

The director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind said “Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children [but] our results suggest that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure.”

In other words, babies respond and learn from music – and in fact, are more impressionable than older children.

Studies also show that when babies take interactive lessons with their parents, their brain responds to musical tones and they show better early communication skills (like pointing at objects that are out of reach, or waving goodbye), they smile more and are easier to soothe and showed less distress.

I have worked with kids for 20 years and noticed the same thing. Here are some of my observations of the children whom I have worked with since they were 15-24 months old:

1. Babies respond to the rhythm of the music and will move according to the beat.
2. Babies love singing – even if the singer sang out of tune! Babies are able to distinguish between high and low sounds and respond to certain cue sounds with chuckles and actions.
3. Music is a great tool to teach babies to speak. One baby had been listening to the Twinkle Twinkle tune, and one day, when an adult sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle”, the baby replied without missing a beat “Little Star”. The kid just turned 1 year old.
4. Babies that learnt music at an early age are bold and dare to create music with their voices, fingers and imagination. There was a baby who went through music training at the age of 15 months old – when she was 5 years old, she was well-able to play at the piano, able to figure out using her fingers to fiddle at the piano, tunes that she had heard – such as, Darth Vader’s music theme and a Teresa Teng theme!
5. The children have beautiful relationships with their parents. Since the parents have been attending music lessons with the child since they were babies, the connection between the child and parent is reinforced. Music is a powerful tool to be used to nurture relationships that are loving, understanding and accepting. Having said that, kids and parents will continue to argue with each other as the children grow up and naturally test the boundaries set by the parents!

The babies are growing up so quickly in their music journey!

I have experienced the power of music in nurturing love and compassion with so many children that I have the opportunity to work with. That’s what makes me feel so fulfilled today – to be able to witness the power of music in building the kind of relationship the child has with the parent: open, accepting, trusting, committed and understanding!