Music for babies begins when you first coo to them, or when you are rocking them to sleep whilst humming, or singing a quiet, gentle lullaby. Babies have even heard your music in utereo, including the ‘music’ of your beating heart!
Parents often sing little songs or rhymes to them whilst changing their nappy or bathing them – reciting ‘This little piggy went to market’ or entertaining a young child with ‘Round and round the garden’, on their hand. Music is such a great connecting mechanism between the parent and child. Music provides comfort, familiarity, physical closeness, anticipation and often laughter.
There are four components to music: singing, listening, dancing and playing.
Here’s how you can help your child to learn….
Singing: Sing lullabies eg ‘Rock-a Bye Baby’ or ‘Mockingbird’ and nursery rhymes such as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle little Star’, or ‘Baa, Baa, Black Sheep’. Include the actions, and even young babies will start to really watch your movements and your excitement, and will soon join in for some of the actions, and maybe part of the words. Toddlers love songs such as ‘Old MacDonald’ where they play an active role in choosing the next animal, and joining in for the chorus.
Listening: This is such an important skill to teach our children. Children may hear you, but may not always listen! We start to teach our babies to listen by using our voice expressively when we greet them, or are talking with them. We give them rattles to shake, and bells which ring. Often we have music in the house and children get to hear what is playing. Take care that the volume is not too loud for them. We also encourage listening by sometimes having both the TV and the music off, and then pointing out the sound of the birds chirping outside, or the distant sound of the postmans’ bike approaching. This really encourages the child to tune in to the sound(s).
When you play music, play a variety…. It can be anything from children’s music to Mozart! By listening to different styles children get to hear the instruments, rhythms and beat.
Read books with rhyming verse and repeated phrases as it encourages participation with it’s rhythm.
Dancing: I remember clearly as a 6 year old, standing on my Daddy’s feet, while he ‘danced’ me around the room, while he sang "You are my sunshine" – such a beautiful memory. Dance with your children, both by holding them on your hip as a baby or toddler, or on your feet with older children. Later dance along side with them, and show them some of your best moves! Have fun doing this – you are creating memories. Let the child choose which music they’d like to play, and what type of dancing is going to be best here.
Playing: Playing musical instruments is such fun! It’s great to have ‘proper’ ones, but you can start off by making simple musical instruments yourself. Fill empty, clean plastic take-away containers with a variety of items – dried beans in one, raw rice in another, cotton tips in another one. Place the lids on and use strong tape to seal them (small items can be a choking hazard). Show your child how to shake them and talk about the loud and soft sounds. Two empty cardboard rolls (from lunchwrap) can be used as tapping sticks, and a wooden spoon and empty plastic container upside-down makes a great drum! You can also use a metal saucepan - but this is only recommended if you can cope with the volume! Sing songs with your child, and play along on the instruments you created together.
Happy musical parenting!
When parents have two (or more) languages, they often discuss whether they should introduce them to their children. They wonder if it is confusing for their little ones to hear two languages spoken in the home environment, and may worry that it’s too difficult for their young children to learn to speak both their native language and English also. In fact the opposite is true!
Babies are born able to hear the sounds of all languages, and are able to link together the ‘like’ sounds which they hear, in their brain – eg they store Danish sounds together, and the English sounds together. Isn’t that amazing?
It’s been found that children who have two languages spoken in the home tend to be more creative and more flexible in their thinking than children with just one language!
Let’s assume two languages are spoken in the home by the parents. Ideally Mum would speak her native language to the child, and Dad would speak his language, eg Mum speaking German and Dad speaking English.
A young child will ‘recognise’ that Dad speaks one way and Mum in a different way. The child will very quickly learn that each item has two names, depending on the speaker. Eg table and ‘tafel’ or apple and ‘apfel’. When each parent uses their own language, this prevents the baby/ young child from becoming confused. This seems to be when parents fear they are overburdening their child with double the amount of words. But, by using their native language, they are assisting their child to become bilingual, which is an asset in our global, multi-cultural society, and the baby’s brain can manage this input.
When your baby begin to speak, he may mix the two languages in a sentence as he learns to correctly put the words together.
You may find that he doesn’t initially reach the milestones for language development – which are based on one language, but by about 2 ½ - 3 years of age he will be able to have regular conversations within both languages.
Children use contextual clues to identify which language to use. Eg If the child has learnt both German and English, then when a German person says: “Guten Morn” (Good morning), the child knows to speak in German, not English.
Language begins to develop prior to birth, when babies hear the parents’ voices in utereo. When a baby, who has just been born, is placed between their mother and a stranger, and they both speak to the baby, she will turn towards the recognisable voice of her Mum – amazing!
From birth to 6 weeks, this recognition of both Mum and Dad’s voices continues, and the baby responds to sounds and voices, but aren’t yet able to localise them. Babies have different cries to indicate their need for food, sleep, or to be burped! When parents are able to correctly identify these cries, then they can quickly settle the baby .
You can read more about this, in a previous article I wrote: https://theparentingcafe.com.au/the-5-words-your-newborn-says/
You can help by: Look at your baby and talk with her. Smile at her. Surround her with gentle, pleasant sounds, and avoid sudden loud noises, which may startle her.
Between 6 weeks and 3 ½ months babies will now turn their heads towards the sound, and will look at their parents when they talk. They begin to make ‘cooing’ sounds eg ‘aaah’, ‘eeee’ or ‘oooo’. It’s also the time when ‘conversation’ starts – have you noticed how a baby of this age will ‘talk’, then stop? If you speak softly back to them, they will ‘listen’ and then respond. It’s a conversation with no words, but with sounds and eye contact!
You can help by: ‘Conversing’ with your baby, allowing him time to respond to you. Maintain eye contact as either of you speak. Make the same sounds as your baby does, as well as ‘regular’ talking. Tell him about his world and what is happening, as you bath him or dress him.
From 3 ½ months to 5 ½ months babies are more able to locate a sound eg over to the left and up. They react when hearing their name, and they enjoy listening to the sounds they themselves make – often squealing with delight. They show pleasure by gurgling and cooing. It’s also the time of blowing ‘raspberries’ with lots of dribble involved!
You can help by: Provide a variety of toys which make different sounds – bells, simple shaker toys and by playing different types of music. Use his name frequently so he gets used to hearing it. Sing simple nursery rhymes – it does not matter about the quality of your voice – it’s about the baby and you sharing a moment through sound! Continue to mimic his sounds, as well as using ‘regular’ words. If the baby wakes happily and is ‘talking’ to himself, let him have that time alone, to be able to listen to his own voice and sounds.
In the time from 5 ½ months to 8 months babies now attempt to mimic sounds, and they experiment with squealing. They start to associate often repeated words with people or objects, and continue to enjoy blowing raspberries! By 8 months babies are beginning to combine sounds eg ‘ba ba’ or ‘da da’, and will repeat one often, before starting on the next one. They are learning verbal and non-verbal forms of communication, eg facial expressions and gestures.
You can help by: When she is playing with a book and seems to be looking at it, name the picture for her. Similarly when she is staring at household object (eg the fan, or the clock), label it for her. When you wave, as someone leaves, and say: ‘bye bye’ she will begin to associate waving with a person leaving. Say rhymes or sing songs which have repeated phrases or words.
Next week we will continue looking at language development – from 8 months onwards.
Happy Parenting, Sonja