BY KINDERMUSIK
Music in the Baby’s Cry
We are musical beings. From the beginning, we are designed to make music. It’s in the rhythm of our movement, of our breathing. If we listen carefully, we can hear music in a baby’s cooing, in her babbling. This music reassures us that our child is content. He’s happy with the world around him. The reality is that this aural connection, the music in the sounds we hear while in the womb preprogram us to make specific music in our first cries. Some of the initial external programing for our growing brains comes from the rhythms, highs, and lows of the speech sounds outside of our little natal apartment. Researchers have discovered that babies in different countries cry in different “accents”. Those accents closely match the cadences (think rhythm, rise, and fall of an area’s speech patterns). Check out a portion of Annie Murphy Paul’s TED Talk – What we learn before we’re born: Annie Murphy Paul and the “accents” of infants’ cries.
Crying as Language: Language as Music
Murphy is most likely referring to studies conducted by Kathleen Wermke of the Center for Prespeech Development and Developmental Disorders at the University of Wurzburg in Germany. Wermke found that this accented crying occurred as early as the first days of ex-utero life. The music of the mother’s voice helps to provide a foundation for the maternal bond long before birth. While this crying is not technically a language, it certainly has linguistic qualities – flow, intonation, varied volume. And it’s precisely those aspects that, in turn, have musical qualities – melodic shape, repeating patterns, and tempo.
So What of Actual Music?
The womb is actually an incredibly noisy locale. Lots of musical sounds besides speech make their way to the developing ear. It’s like a street level apartment in New York City. You have the ever present heartbeat of the mother, the whooshing of blood pumping, the gurgling of food digesting, and the sounds of the lungs constantly inflating and deflating. Can actual music get through this biological big band and have an effect on a baby in-utero? Annie Murphy Paul thinks so.
Simple is Best
I need to disclose that I am a classically trained musician – and I love classical music. But as it turns out, it’s likely that the complexity of this music is lost while competing with the “street noise” of the womb. In her interview with New York Magazine, Dr. Deborah Campbell, the Director of Neonatology at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, reminds us that infants have the capacity to recognize simple melodies experienced while displacing mom’s bladder. Think folk music. And guess what? As it turns out (here’s where we tie a bow on all this), folk music is often based on the pace, rhythm, and melody of a region’s speech patterns!
So…if you put the headphones on your tummy, or sing to your partner’s navel, stick to the classics, time-tested folk music. Kindermusik uses a great deal of this music in our classes, and while there are many reasons this category of music is so effective with new humans, its ability to be internalized quickly and repeated easily is certainly connected to its special relationship with the language of origin.
Next time you hear your baby cry, hear the music. She’s singing to you in your language.
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sing throughout the day singing and movement singing dad singing helps grownups self-regulate singing in choir makes you happier singing is the best singing is the way singing mom singing parents sirens and fireworks sleeping infant so social social skills social-emotional growth social-emotional learning soft music solving problems sound sound first – symbol second sound vocabulary sounds speak up. speech skill sports events square peg in a square hole: music in the preschool experience – a natural fit squirm steady beat steady beats for kids steady beats matters story time! reading to kids the right way storytime strengthens the vestibular system stretching them to their limits as we create strong relationship studio kindermusik classes study after study summer camp summer camp on a summer slide summer slide summer slide: what you should know sun’s out support divergent thinking through play support physical distancing and social-emotional development with seated or outdoor musical activities. talk teach creativity teaching kids to become creative the beginning of life is beautifully composed the best gifts are often not the most expensive the best kind of summer school the blues: music and mood the box vs. the toy that came in it: why the box wins the brain looks for patterns. the collaborative for academic the gift of health: music boosts the immune system the gift of love: a parent’s perspective of kindermusik the gift of time: holiday activities for the whole family the neurosciences and music vi: music the power of “i love you” rituals the science behind singing to your child the surprising connections between social-emotional skills and cognitive development the surprising reasons why grownups love kindermusik too toddlers and toys too loud: how to prevent early hearing loss in children tools tools for kids top 5 tips for buying the perfect simple gifts for kids triangle trudel music studio trust trust relevant experts. try to live by this rule of five unique brain patterns universal language: music therapy use a mirror to visualize phonemes using music to address challenging behaviors utero vacuum cleaner we have no earlids. we hear with our brains. we love our kindermusik educators what can i do to prevent early hearing loss? what does it take? becoming a kindermusik educator what kids need what kids want: quality time what kinds of activities should an infant music class include? what makes kindermusik so compelling to children what’s wrong with toddler music lessons? when it comes to your kids investing early pays off whisper white noise for babies who knew? kindermusik changes lives in jordan why barefoot is best why do children need a “music program”? why do you sing? why does music increase literacy development? why is newborn bonding important and when does it happen? why is unstructured play important? why music is better than white noise for babies why shared musical experiences with your child are so important (and ideas to implement!) why singing to your child every day is vital why songs stick in our heads why toddler music lessons aren’t the best idea wiggle will i gain confidence as a parent? with love woodblock worried about partying in college? a music major ain’t got time for that! 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