The Many Benefits of Baby Music Classes

The goal of most baby music classes is to have parent and child bond through music-making. As parent and child connect using music, babies also enjoy other important benefits. A 2012 study out of McMaster University showed that babies who participated in music classes with their parents in the first year of life “smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.”

Through hands-on music classes, infants are exposed to activities that help develop their motor skills (like crawling and grabbing things), language skills and social skills—all of which stimulate their brains.

Besides an early appreciation of music, here are some of the rich cognitive and developmental benefits of baby music classes:

1. Social development and interaction. Using music to help infants be in tune with emotions like happiness, sadness and anger gives them a solid foundation for social skills. By conveying those emotions through song and combining it with parent interaction, like bouncing games and instrument play, infants can become familiar with these feelings early on and kick-start their own emotional awareness.

A lot of social development involves feeling emotions, understanding your emotions and empathizing with other people, so there’s something about the fact that music elicits these emotions in us that makes it particularly powerful for social development. Another McMaster study showed that moving in sync to music with others also helps toddlers form social bonds. The study observed that 14-month-olds were more likely to help an adult if they had previously bounced in time with the music, compared with an adult whose movement was off-tempo.

2. Motor skills. As infants discover new instruments, they figure out how to use them and how to make the sounds they want. Babies haven’t learned how to be very coordinated yet, so they have to learn to coordinate their actions, but in response to the information that’s coming in. Infants can develop their motor skills by, for example, playing an instrument like the tambourine, or having your baby grasp a mallet and guiding their hands over xylophone keys. As they catch on, infants can then practice refining their movements to make a desired sound. That also plays into another amazing benefit.

3. Sensory enhancement. The mix of sensory awareness and motor control is crucial for a baby’s overall development. Being able to notice differences in sounds and fine-tune one’s movements is important for playing instruments and even learning to talk and sing. Music classes can help make children more comfortable around loud sounds as well, helping make the world a little less scary for little ones.

4. Language development. Any exposure to language is good for babies, especially through an accessible activity like making music. Singing can prompt babies to chime in, in their own little way. Research shows that gabbing attempts—even if it’s just gibberish—is good for babies’ brains and can even give them a leg up once they start school.

5. Emotional regulation. The music classes teach parents to soothe their babies through music, particularly by singing favorite songs, which helps to create healthy associations. It helps babies to trust the parent because the parent becomes effective at helping the baby to regulate their state of mind. Music is also an important tool for expression and self-regulation and allowing your child to be aware of their own emotions, and recognize that their state can be shifted by positive triggers.

6. Brain boost. Researchers at the University of Washington discovered that musical play sessions help activate parts of the brain responsible for both music and speech processing, as well as other important cognitive skills like controlling attention and noticing patterns. When looking at the responses to music of two different groups of babies through a brain scan, the study found the group who participated in musical activities showed a stronger response to changes in the music than the group who played with toys while music simply played in the background.

A similar McMaster study supports this, showing that while infants seem to be naturally drawn to beats and rhythms, babies who go to music classes show more responsiveness than those who don’t. The study says having musically trained parents helps with this as well.

7. Parent-child bonding. Last but not least, life as a new parent is hectic, but it’s important to spend regular focused time with your little one in order to strengthen those parent-child emotional connections. Having fun by experiencing music together is one of the best ways to do that. Instead of just having babies playing and playing instruments and moving by themselves, parents should get involved!

Even something as simple as singing to your child can do wonders in building a stronger bond, according to a study from the University of Miami. While researchers discovered that babies engage more with being sung to versus just listening to music, they also noticed that as mothers sing to their children, they have a natural ability to adjust their singing to keep their baby’s attention. The mutual interaction also results in feeling more empowered as a parent, the study says, which can be particularly helpful for mothers with postpartum depression.

Allison Green
Boston Tutoring Services