Music is amazing for its relaxing power, but it can also be pretty useful for children's development.
Engaging infants through singing offers a valuable way to support social development and interaction, according to a new study.
Let's find out more.
A study on how music helps infants
Researchers conducted a study involving 112 infants aged 2 months or 6 months.
The study used eye-tracking technology to observe that caregivers' singing rhythmically synchronizes infants' eye-looking to social cues, even at sub-second timescales.
At 2 months old, infants were twice as likely to look at the singers' eyes in time with the musical beat, a behavior that supports interactive engagement.
By 6 months, as infants develop more advanced rhythmic and communicative behaviors, they were over four times as likely to synchronize their eye-looking with the musical beats and singers' eyes.
The predictable rhythm of singing was crucial for this entrained social interaction, demonstrating the physical coupling between caregiver behavior and infant experience.
Why is it important?
The study highlights that making music is fundamental to early socio-emotional development, underscoring the connection between innate musical sensitivity and social engagement in young children.
The study contributes to our understanding of the role of music in supporting infant-caregiver communication and early developmental processes.
