Babies and Music

In my family, listening to music is an important part of time spent at home or in the car. We listen to music almost all the time. We have had XM radio in the past, CDs, radio, but now rely mostly on streaming music from the Internet.

I remember listening to bluegrass and the Grateful Dead for days straight when my first daughter was born. We felt it was important to provide out daughter with a warm atmosphere and secretly hoped she would get hooked on the music we liked.

A new study was released by the National Academy of Sciences which concludes that infant brains can follow a rhythm. The study shows that babies can follow the rhythm and they know when notes have been removed to disrupt the rhythm. Another interesting part of the study suggests that babies as young as 5 months can perceive emotion from music and can tell between upbeat songs and gloomier tunes. You can read a story about this study here.

The most interesting thing is that the findings show us that babies don't have a blank slate after all. Infants actually already have tools for interpreting the world around them.

So turn it up and rock out! It's good for them.