
Should You Introduce Baby Songs With Video To Your Child? The 101 Guide On Music & Babies!
Do you know introducing your baby to music and enjoyable tunes can help his cognitive and sensory abilities develop faster? Right from the time you feel the presence of your baby in your womb to the time your little munchkin grows into a toddler and beyond, music acts a strong medium to help your child be open to learning, while also having fun.
Hence, being a parent, you must expose your child to different types of music (basically baby lullabies, rhymes and other baby songs with video) to strengthen your child’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. So, if you are a parent or planning to be one, this blog will help you explore everything about how music is an essential element of your kid’s growth. So, let’s get started with this musical journey.
Sung by Alka yagnik and Shaan
Interesting Facts About Music And Babies
Here’s a complete list of interesting facts related to music and babies that will leave you with “Wow”. So, do pay attention to them.
- Initiates Development In The First Three Years: During the first three years of life, music plays a great medium to help a baby realize his complete potential. By singing songs and giving a musical environment to your child, you can expand your baby’s horizons.
- Formation Of Social Relationships: According to an assumption, music helps children and babies form social relations. In another experiment, it was found that the children’s group, which experienced extensive social interaction was the one that involved singing and dancing together.
- Mozart Effect Theory: This theory was conducted in the US at the University of California on three groups of college students. The first group listened to classical music composition by Mozart, the second group listened to repetitive music and the third group listened to recorded stories. During this study, the researchers established a connection between spatial reasoning and music. The study revealed that listening to music helps in the development of a specific area of the human brain that involves in spatial-temporal reasoning and orientation.
- Music And Mother’s Mood: Grasping concepts and understanding emotions are directly linked to each other, as per Perlovsky. By listening to the pitch and rhythm of the mother’s voice or speech, a baby quickly understands his/her mother’s mood. This is because of the fact that babies perceive music much earlier than they can comprehend a language.
- Develops The Imagination Power: The ability to imagine and visualize sound is developed through musical training. According to Neuroimaging techniques, the area in the cortex is not just responsible for listening and deciphering music, but also responsible for sound visualization and imagination. Individuals, who were a part of the research mentioned above, were asked to perform different types of visualization exercises afterwards. It was found that individuals who listened to music performed the sound visualization exercises better than others. However, no clear results were found related to sight visualization.
- Preference For Harmony: A specific research showed that babies do not prefer dissonant music over consonant music. The babies were exposed to two recorded versions (dissonant and harmonious) of classical musical pieces, for example, Bach’s Minuet. It concluded that babies showed more preference for the harmonious version of the classical musical pieces.
- Strengthen The Bond Between The Baby And The Caregiver: Playing baby songs with video and singing rhymes to babies helps in strengthening the relationship between the baby and the caregiver or parent. Many researchers have found that apart from creating a strong bond, music also helps in calming a baby, gaining a sense of confidence and building the babies’ emotional basis.
- Specify The Difference Between Music Instruments: You’ll be amazed to know that babies very well understand the difference between different musical instruments. In a study conducted at McGil University in Canada, it was found that 8-month old babies were able to rectify the difference between orchestra musical pieces and piano recitals. Even after two weeks, the babies remembered the musical pieces and successfully spotted the difference between them. This research clearly highlighted that babies can remember the musical experience they had in the past and that the ability to distinguish and listen is developed at early growth stages.
Top 10 Baby Video Songs You Should Play For Your Child
Here are some of the most popular baby songs with video that you will easily find on YouTube – ChuChu TV
- Johny, Johny yes papa
- Old Macdonald
- Rain rain, go away
- Five little ducks
- I’m a little teapot
- Head, shoulders, knees & toes
- Five little monkeys
- Twinkle twinkle little star
- Baa, baa, black sheep
- If you’re happy and you know it
Simply enjoying music and having a fun time with your child can help you create a strong bond with your cutiepie. So, don’t forget to sing and dance along with your baby. Also, you must note that music videos have a much greater positive impact on kids, in comparison to audios. The only reason behind this is that videos are more engaging and grab the attention of your kid easily. The baby songs with video help your child learn to do different actions, (like rolling hands, clapping) or recognize animals and other things (like, pig, horse, dog, fan etc.) as shown in the video. When you start playing songs on YouTube, you will eventually start getting suggestions on the ideal baby songs to play for your child. So, this will be an added advantage.
Best Musical Instruments For Babies
Exposing your little one to music can be more exciting and fun through musical instruments that can enhance your kid’s musical experience and speed-up the skill development process. Some of the best music instruments include the following –
- Xylophone
- Piano keyboard carpet
- Toy drum set
- Rattle toys
- Ukulele
- Kids harmonica
- Piano toy keyboard with microphone
- Maracas
- Egg shakers
- Kids bongo drum set
- Tone blocks
Before purchasing any of these instruments (or others), make sure you pick the instruments according to your child’s age, size and weight of the instrument. If you want to spend fun and quality time with your baby, try making some DIY musical instruments along with your baby. It will help the baby learn how to work as a team, improve his creative skills and strengthen your bond with the baby.
Importance & Benefits Of Music For Babies
Just like teenagers and adults, music has an amazing positive effect on the development of babies and toddlers. According to researchers, babies are born with billions of neurons (brain cells), which keep forming connection with other neurons during the first years of life. Over time, the connections that are used by the brain become stronger. So, babies who grow up listening to music tend to develop strong connections in the brain, thereby making way for creativity, improved memory, spatial intelligence, and linguistic development. The points listed below highlight the importance and benefits associated with introducing music to babies and toddlers.
- Learn Self-Regulation
Music activities with toddlers and infants help them practice self-regulation, which is the ability to manage one’s physical needs and emotional state. By playing lullabies on your mobile phones or TV screen, you are not just making your baby calm down, but also supporting the practice and development of self-regulation in your child.
- Boost Cultural Awareness
The feelings of safety and security nurture within a child when you play songs from children’s home cultures. Songs in the native language, representing native cultural values make it easier for the baby to get acquainted with the culture and learn the language faster than other kids.
- Physical Development
Interactive baby songs with video, like “The Wheels on the Bus” is a perfect example of how music can aid in the physical development of kids. Listening to such songs, dancing to the tunes and enacting them with hands and fingers boost the development of small muscles in the children’s body. The more they use their hands and fingers, the more their muscles will get stronger for drawing and writing.
- Improves The Child’s Mood
Music has the potential to influence your emotions. Hence, you can use music as a medium to get your child excited about an upcoming event. The benefits of music are also associated with your child’s memory. Positive memories associated with the music can help them recall their experiences when they hear that song.
- Benefits Premature Babies
Studies have revealed that music therapy is highly beneficial for preterm infants. It helps in developing their cognitive abilities, sensory skills, communication skills and overall health. When parents hold their premature baby close to them and sing a song, it creates skin-to-skin contact, which regulates the breathing and heart rate of the baby. Baby’s feeding behaviour is also said to improve through music therapy. Premature babies who receive music therapy tend to get discharged from the hospital earlier than those who do not receive music therapy. This is because, in comparison to the latter, the former ones have more normalized sleeping and breathing patterns.
This isn’t the end of the list; there are several other benefits of playing or singing songs to your child. During the process of introducing music to your child, you will clearly experience these benefits and explore better growth opportunities for your child. So, to raise a happy, and healthy child, music is your key.
Ideas For Incorporating Music In Your Child’s Life
By now, you must have understood how important music is for your baby’s growth. But, how do you assure that the baby video songs or rhymes, you play for your baby, actually help in his/her development? How do you make sure that the music reflects your baby’s new acquired abilities and skills?
Music experiences are different for babies in different age groups. A 6-month old baby may experience or respond to a specific baby song differently than a 2-year-old baby. Hence, depending on the age of your child, you must thoughtfully plan music experiences and try different ideas to incorporate music into your child’s life. This will help in nurturing your child’s development skills in the best possible manner.
Listed below are some unique ideas that you must give a try –
- Infants To 12 Months’ Baby
- Pick The Right Time: Choose a specific time for playing baby songs with video. For example, lullabies during nap time or you can sing a personalized ‘goodbye’ song at drop-off.
- Make Your Baby Feel Connected To The Song: Try to use music in a way that connects to your baby. For example, hold your baby close to you, maintain an eye-contact with the baby and sing to him/her. While the songs are playing, try to notice which songs your baby enjoys the most. If possible, include the name of your baby in the song you sing.
- Use Music Instruments: Hand them some instruments, like bells, egg shakers or chimes that help them understand how a particular object works. Your kids will simply love it, when these objects would produce sounds. In case you do not these instruments at home, the easiest way to create one yourself. Simply fill a few empty plastic bottles with a small amount of rice, pebbles, beans, or metal bolts. secure the cap through a tape and let your kid shake the bottles and enjoy the different sounds.
- Dance And Make Your Baby Dance: Physical movement while listening to music is very important. See how the animated characters are dancing and let your baby do the same, by holding them and moving their arms and legs. Initially, you can begin with slow music and then you can switch to a faster tempo. Hold your baby close and move your body along the tunes of the music.
- Start From The Basics: Always begin by singing simple songs to your baby, like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Do not forget to use hand gestures as babies tend to control their fingers and hands earlier than they can speak or sing.
Most Important Tip: Choose songs that have a quiet, background music as a loud music can overstimulate an infant. |
- Young Toddlers To 2 Years’ Baby
- Let Your Kid Mingle With Others: Involving in musical activities or games is the perfect way to develop social-emotional skills in toddlers. Let your kid play with other kids of the similar age; organize a musical parade wherein every child plays an instrument and let your kids have pure fun.
- Song-Based Musical Games Are a Must-Try: Encourage peer play with song-based games, like “Ring Around The Rosie”, wherein all the kids hold hands and move in a circle, singing this poem. Apart from this, you can play another game known as Freeze. Explain the kids that they need to stop at their place (standing still) when the music turns off. This musical game will help your kids learn self-regulation and self-control.
- Let Pretend Play Be The Limelight: To improve the thinking abilities of your toddlers, you must pay attention to ‘pretend play skills’ as toddlers being developing such skills at about 18 months of age. So, while playing any baby songs with video, let your kid play with props, such as puppets, soft toys, dolls etc. This will nurture their thinking skills. For example, your kid may move the arms of a doll and sing to her.
- Play Educational, Awareness-Friendly Songs: Letting your kids be aware of their bodies is very important. Hence, you must play songs that grow your toddler’s body awareness. The best example of this is “Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes”. Play and sing this song regularly with actions telling which organ is where. Eventually, your kid will recognize these body parts easily. “Hokey Pokey” is another song that encourages a better understanding of body parts among young toddlers.
- Let Your Kid Fill In The Blank: Baby songs and rhymes can help your kid grow his/her language skills. Begin singing a song, then pause for a while and let your kid complete the phrase. For example, “Rain Rain ________”.
- Groove To The Tunes Of Music From Other Cultures: Exposing kids to songs that are native to your culture and language is very important. But, this doesn’t mean that you should not let them enjoy music from other cultures. Even if the language in the song is not your mother tongue, it can help your kid learn new phrases and words. To boost your kid’s comprehension, use hand gestures and let him/her imitate you.
- Check Online Resources For Pronunciation: While playing songs from other cultures, if you find that you do not know the correct pronunciation of a specific word, you must look for online resources that provide songs with lyrics.
Most Important Tip: Toddlers love dancing and to enhance their music experience, repetition is the key. This will encourage memorization and language learning. |
- 2 Years To 3 Years’ Baby
- Give Your Child The Experience Of ‘Feelings’: To help your children learn about different feelings, try playing songs that communicate different types of feelings, like happiness or sadness. Give them some instruments and let them dance on different musical numbers – happy, sad, silly.
- Let Your Kid Play And Make New Friends: Encourage your kid to play with other children and create music together using instruments from different cultures. Such activities promote early friendship among kids.
- Try Unique Games: Your kid’s brain processes and thinking abilities can be improved by a game called ‘Fast and Slow’. As the name implies, you have to begin by playing a fast-beat music and ask your child to move his/her body in sync with the beat. Once it is done, switch to a medium tempo song and then to a slow tempo song. With the changes in the tempo of the song, the bodily movements of your kid will also change. This will help your kid’s brain process the type of sound and understand how to sync their body in response to the rhythm.
- Get Creative In Movements: Physical movement and actions while playing and singing songs is important. Hence, you must initiate creative movement experiences. For example, letting your kid sing Jingle Bells, while holding Christmas bells and dancing like Santa.
- Encourage Storytelling Through Music: Telling stories through music is a great medium to develop your child’s language and literacy skills. “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” is one of the best baby songs with video that will help you initiate storytelling through music. You can even use this process in your daily life by communicating with your kid in a musical manner. In response to what you convey, your kid may also revert back to you musically.
Most Important Tip: At this age, kids love their voice to roar. So, repeat melodies that have a definite beat and include familiar things, like play activities, toys, animals etc. |
Get Grooving With Your Baby Right Away!
Music plays a catalyst in the growth and development of babies and toddlers. So, do not let your child be exempted from the benefits of music. It helps understand their feelings, solve problems, learn to decipher patterns and discover the world in the most interesting way. Be it during car rides or household chores, music should be an inevitable part of your child’s growing years.
Through this article, we have tried our very best to help you learn and explore everything that surrounds and relates to music and babies. Right from a complete list of popular baby songs with video to facts and benefits of music, we have carefully compiled a list of topics that matters to you as a parent. So, step-in the world of music with your baby and get grooving right away.
I found Baby Songs With Video list collection very educational.
I want to share with you how my children learned to love the piano:
https://s96.me/ingenious-way-to-learn-piano-and-keyboard
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