The Magic of Music for Babies

January 7, 2015

Yesterday, I started to sing “The Itsy, Bitsy Spider” to my 13-month-old granddaughter Evie and she sat up from nearly falling asleep and sang along with me in her own baby way. The musical cues from this song were so powerful that the start of the afternoon nap was delayed for another hour. Since birth, she’s been listening to lullabies, playing with musical instruments and she also takes a Saturday morning music class for babies and toddlers. Our reward: now she sings and dances along.  But it’s much more than this.


Music, it turns out, is not just a simple background sound track to the first years of life. It is key to language acquisition . Three researchers – psychologists Anthony Brandt, Molly Gebrian and L. Robert Slevc – challenge the prevailing belief that “music’s role in human development is … ancillary and slower to mature.” In their paper, “Music and early language acquisition” published in Frontiers of Psychology (September 2012), they explain, “Language is a compromise between what adults need to say and children’s ability to process what they hear. Crucially, what infants hear is…a form of music.” Back in the womb, those sounds a fetus hears are quite musical with low frequency vowels, pitches and rhythms. Even motherese , that universal language of mothers interacting verbally with babies, feels like music with “high pitched, slow, rhythmic… and more exaggerated melodic contours than adult-directed speech.”

Researchers have wondered how infants connect sounds to meaning and this research helps explain a link. “Infants use the musical aspects of language as scaffolding… They are “listening for how their language is composed.” From “a developmental perspective, the progression is clear: first we play with sounds; then we play with meanings and syntax. It is our innate musical intelligence that makes us capable of mastering speech .”

Meanwhile, my quirky (I am not very good but she doesn’t know this yet!) rendition of the “ABC” song comes so naturally with each diaper change that Evie pays attention long enough for me to get the job done. It can also calm her down from a crying jag on a car ride. Now, there’s power for you.


What's in a Baby's Facial Expression

July 18, 2017
Alexander Stone Carr was born on Dec. 16, 2016 and I met this newest – my fifth! – grandchild moments after his birth in the middle of a long night. He stared intently, wide-awake and alert, into his mother’s eyes and actually grabbed for a necklace Maggie was wearing. Both wore falling-in-love-at-first-sight facial expressions that were absolutely priceless. And since then, Alex has only grown even more expansive in the way he can speak volumes with his little face using every muscle available, even his eyebrows going up and down in what looks like real wisdom. I mean, honestly, how did he know how to smile and make eye contact at the perfect moments? He’s also talking baby gibberish, chatting seriously about what’s on his mind…though we don’t understand a word he is saying as yet. His pure joy at being here is apparent to all, even complete strangers who engage with him.

Thanks Mom...Understanding Attachment Theory

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Maggie had a baby boy, Alexander Stone Carr. Here they are on day 1...learning to love and totally attached to one another.

Don't Knock Nesting Instinct

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My daughter Maggie is going to have a little boy on or about December 22 of this year. She is absolutely thrilled and absolutely caught up in nesting instinct imperatives. Please don’t knock them. “Maternal nest-building is regulated by the hormonal actions of estradiol, progesterone and prolactin,” according to Wikipedia which references a study in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology .

Sibling Rivalry Never Grows Old

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This morning one of my siblings sent an exasperating “dig” my way. I’m one of six children and right in the middle of the pack. I should be used to family dynamics by now – after all, I’m 67 – but of course, I’m not. What is absolutely extraordinary in this ordinary world of family life, is that sibling rivalry never grows old.

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Don't Pick on Picky Eaters

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I’ve had generations of experience with what society likes to call “picky eaters.” My father had very touchy taste buds, for instance, and would carefully separate the miniscule pieces of minced onion my mother had chopped so finely into her beef stroganoff. That little pile on the side of his plate after he had finished his meal was a dead giveaway. We six children grew up knowing that dad would only eat certain foods. So when my son Zach – even as an infant – showed picky-eater tendencies, I was alarmed at first. Advice-givers, medical professionals, well-meaning relatives as well as total strangers, were everywhere. It took some research to be able to withstand the onslaught from all sides. Zach is healthy, happy and brilliant. He didn’t eat his peas. So what.

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Positive Emotions = Smarter & Healthier

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Watching my grandchildren at play on Saturday sent me on a quest to research just how powerful happy playfulness can be. Finn, 5, Charlotte, 3 and Evie, 2, were having so much fun that I overheard Ev say, “I love playing.” I expected to find research that supported the importance of play for growing children but stumbled upon the brilliant work of social psychologist Barbara L. Fredrickson, PhD, now at the University of North Carolina. Play and the positive emotions accompanying it, are critical for adults’ physical health and intellectual well-being.

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The Grandmother Effect

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I’ve been doing a lot of babysitting the last few months and there is nothing more rewarding and exhausting. There is certainly a biological reason for motherhood being reserved for the younger generation. Don’t even try to talk to me after a 12-hour day with a toddler. I am so tired that I can hardly think straight. But I wouldn’t want it any other way. Not only am I growing closer and more in love with all three of my grandchildren but it turns out that my natural instinct as a grandmother to want to help my children raise their children has evolutionary rewards for all.
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