The following content is excerpted from Music Together Worldwide’s blog, and a link to the complete article on their website is at the end of the excerpt. Enjoy!
Parents are sometimes surprised to hear that they can start Music Together® classes with their babies as soon after birth as they’d like. That’s because all children are born music-makers. Yes, your baby’s cries, coos, and squeals are also their first attempts at singing! How do babies go from “aahh!” to “do, re, mi”? Like all early learning, it starts with parent and caregiver support.
Think about how children learn language. Babies are not born with the ability to speak their language; rather, they are born with the potential to learn to speak their language. It’s only through prolonged exposure to language and practice making sounds (babbling) that children acquire language competency. The same is true for music-learning. We’re all born with the potential to learn music—and with lots of exposure to music and chances to practice musical sounds, we can each learn to sing in tune and move with accurate rhythm.
The good news? You can support your child’s music development the same way you do their language development: through reinforcement and play. When a baby first says “da-da,” we typically react with lots of positive feedback and echo back “da-da!” This instinctive response reinforces the baby’s first attempts at speaking, which leads to more babbling with their grownups, and eventually, language fluency. When you reinforce their early singing, too, your baby will also become fluent in music-making!
>>> READ MORE on Music Together’s worldwide website by clicking here <<<
