Using Music to Promote Brain Development in Your Baby

Creating musical experiences for your child is one of the easiest ways to support all areas of development and promote important brain connections in the first 3 years of life.

The way we engage with music naturally supports development across all domains. For example, when you sing a lullaby while rocking your baby to sleep, you’re supporting early language development, promoting your social attachment, and helping your infant’s budding spatial and body awareness through the rocking motion. Who knew all of that was happening in such a simple, everyday moment!?

This week, try our Rhythm Maker activity. Pick two songs that you think your little one may enjoy — one with a faster pace and one that’s slower. Play or sing the fast song as you sway together and clap, or tap out the beat. You can also offer a rattle or other object to shake along with the beat. Watch your child’s reaction. Then play the second, slower song, showing your little one how the beat and pace have changed. Again, check to see their reaction. Can you tell which song your little one prefers?

For 0–1 year old’s, you are helping them feel the difference between fast and slow motions and beats. You are promoting cause and effect as you let them shake the rattle and see, feel and hear what happens. And you are promoting their language development as they listen to and try to copy your sounds.

For 1–2 year old’s, you’re using songs to stretch their vocabulary. You are honing their imitation skills as they copy the way you move. You are introducing the ideas of self-control, self-regulation and muscle control as they try to learn where the beat is and stay with it (don’t expect them to get this yet).

For 2–3 year old’s, you’re building on their imitation skills as they better copy how you move. You’re building their cognitive and motor skills as they change their pace between the fast and slow songs. And you are helping them understand sequences of events and anticipate what comes next as they listen to the stories in the songs.

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