Musical Infant Development

The first article explains how music plays a big role in social, physical, thinking and language development. Music quite often provides opportunities to practice patterns, math concepts and thinking

Hicks, George. "How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain. CommonHealth RSS. CommonHealth, 17 July 2014. Web. 04 Mar. 2016.

Babies prefer the sound of humans interacting to other sounds and from this, they quickly learn to recognise and identify their mother’s voice. Babies form their first relationship through emotional attachments with their mother or main carer. The first year of a baby’s life is a period of incredible growth, and a baby’s brain goes through critical periods during which stimulation is needed for proper development. During the babies first years, visual stimuli or verbal language is necessary for areas of the brain to grow and without this growth, a child’s vision or speaking abilities might be impaired. Infants tend to have different cries for hunger or pain, as well as making other noises. These abilities show your child is gaining communication and pre-language skills. Infants from birth to 6 months will forget about objects they cannot see however they begin to explore objects they can see and grab by putting them in their mouths. They will also follow moving objects with their eyes and look around at nearby objects. Infants in this stage will turn to look at a source of sound. These developmental milestones show a baby’s brain is developing and they are gaining new skills. From 7 to 12 months, infants also learn the idea of cause and effect, and they might repeat an action that causes a

At around 4-6 months old a baby will have developed an awareness of sound in particularly a person speaking and will turn towards the sound when someone familiar speaks for example their parents. They will start to mimic sounds and start to babble and laugh. Intellectual development is rapid and although they may not be able to speak in more than just babble, their understanding will be greater and they will become much more inquisitive. They will be able to understand simple instructions such as “point to your nose.” By a year old, they’ll be able to say simple words like “Mama” and “Dada” or words with similar sounds. They may start to develop their own language with odd sounding words for common objects that take their interest. Sometimes these words will sound similar to the name of the object particularly if their parents spend time speaking to their child and repeating the names of these objects.

Music can help the human brain in many ways. It’s like what Prof. Sarah Wilson from the video “Music Of The Brain” said about the effects of what humming and singing from a mother can do to her offspring. The humming and singing a mother does can develop a very important and special bond and connection between the child and mother. About 40% of babies who were born pre-maturely can develop reading and writing disabilities because those months that they missed could be the amount of months that their mother would be singing or speaking to their babies. Most of what premature babies hear is beeping from the monitors since they are kept in a special care room at the hospital. Also, music can help speak impaired people. For example Dr. Peter Hand’s

Hi Frank, I agree with you that the article The Musical Infant is fascinating and I would like to add some information to it. It's recognized that when an infant is in the womb and is exposed to music they can recall this music after they are conceived. To be exact, studies propose that playing music to a baby in the womb, and in early youth years, helps the brain to develop. Some believe that exposure to music while in the womb additionally adds to expand intellectual capacity. Be that as it may, others doubt this and the subject stays questionable. Similarly, there's a lot of research indicating how classical music stimulatingly affects the body and psyche, which thus can prompt enhanced physical and enthusiastic wellbeing, and can help

It is clear that even in the early stages of life, the body entrains itself to the music of the surrounding environment, whether it be the sounds of voices, machines, instruments, or silence. While this research is still in its preliminary stages, it shows that the simple act of listening to music in the early stages of life could have a drastic impact on the patient’s future quality of life (Drahota, et al., 2012).

By exploring sources that address the topic of premature infants and music therapy, the author of this paper discusses about the effect of music on specific common issue that the NICU can cause to premature infants. The effect of music therapy on stabilizing premature infants’ breathing and heart rate is addressed. The author also points out that music can be a stimulus for premature infants to learning life-matter skill such as the sucking behavior.

The infants benefit, since the music helps prepare the brain to think in a special way. According to Dr. Diane Bales, in his article called "Building Baby's Brain": The Role of Music ", this structure stimulates the same patterns in the brain that are responsible forrazonamient .the Music also plays a positive role in skills language. According to Ann Gadzikowski, coordinator of the Museum Child in Chicago, there is a strong connection between the development of language and musical skills. To develop both language and musical skills, we must learn to Audits identify

Van Dyck, Vansteenkiste, Lenoire, Lesaffre, and Leman’s (2014) experiment identifies whether induced emotions of happiness and sadness can be recognized from dance movements. Their study revealed subjects were able to recognize the emotions expressed by the dancers accurately. Zentner and Eerola (2010) examined whether infants between the ages of 5-24 months were able to take part in rhythmic engagement and identification. The study found infants were in fact able to engage more with rhythmic sounds than they were to speech and that they were also able to distinguish between fast and slow tempo. Jensenius (2007) provides the different definitions for gestures and an outline various music related movements and the taxonomies used to describes these actions.

The definitions of musicality and its expression fit on a wide spectrum. By using longitudinal studies, researchers are able to identify how and why musicality develops over a period of time using the same subject. The study of 48 candidate examples of longitudinal studies and 27 reports broken into four subareas (music; language and music; educational concerns; family, culture, and context) finds that developmental trends related to musicality are not necessarily linked to specific age ranges. What has been discovered is that the first three years of a person’s development are critical for enhanced musicality. The opportunity for play experiences and exposure to participation in musical activities, both formal and informal, are essential

Music, the fine, and performing arts, as well as athletics, are also integral to a child’s healthy development. Learning to play an instrument, sing, dance, act, throw and catch, are critical for children’s developing awareness of the

All three of the sources suggest that the implementation of music therapy into the care plans of premature infants can result in positive outcomes regarding physiological functions and overall growth. Premature infants, compared to full term babies, tend to fall behind on physical growth and development. Additionally, preemies are less likely to have fully developed physiological functions and reflexes vital for survival. While medical interventions are effective in assisting preemies with living, they can cause psychological distress and lead to longer hospital stays and less time away from primary caregivers (mother, father, etc.). Alternative treatment methods, such as music therapy, seems to be highly correlated with the opposite of

Babies who are exposed to different influences of musical interaction have highly increased brain activity and have proven signs of more developmental stages of growth (Arya, et al., 2011.) An infant’s brain is not fully developed at birth, so he needs sensory input for the cells to build and connect. Listening and playing music can help improve children's' concentration, patience, self-confidence, coordination and relaxation. Music acts as a source of comfort and connection for unborn babies and toddlers. Dancing, listening and playing to a beat can change a kid's mood and help them understand and express emotions. The influence of music on infants encourages early language development, promotes attachment, and increases brain activity respectively and can increase neurodevelopment as well as social

Different genres and styles of music offers and appeals to many people; from a range of country to R&B, rap, hip hop and many more. As I have been playing an instrument since fifth grade, I have devoted my time and effort to this activity. While listening to music has their own benefits, playing a musical instrument, has a variety of neurological benefits that people might not be aware of. As children are still growing and are identified as adults until they reach 18, as Sandra Aamodt, who wrote the book Welcome to Your Child's Brain, and also happens to be a neuroscientist stated, “Most people don't reach full maturity until the age 25” (Brain Maturity Extends). If the statement is true, then playing an instrument could influence the development