Sing to Your Baby

Singing to your baby may help her develop emotional self-control. In a recent study, researchers found that babies stayed calm twice as long (about 9 min.) when being sung to (“play songs” such as nursery rhymes) than when listening to baby-talk or adult speech (about 4 min.). To ensure that the infants’ response wasn’t influenced by other variables, such as mother’s voice or her facial expressions, researchers used play songs in an unfamiliar language and had them sung by someone other than their mother. Previous studies have shown that music activates different areas of the brain and that being sung to also reduced anxiety and pain in little ones.