Good news for tCaired mothers who have been spending their sleepless nights with their crying and wailing babies! Research has found a better strategy to calm your babies and tuck them to sleep.
Researchers from the University of Montreal observed that infants remained relax for twice as long when listening to a song as they did when listening to speech. Just like adults, babies get soothed by music, thus the study suggests that they have the mental aptitude to be absorbed by it.
As many studies have already been conducted to look at how singing and speech affect infants, the new study's objective is to understand how singing and speech affect a baby's emotional self-control. Professor Isabelle Peretz of University of Montreal's Center for Research on Brain, Music and Language believes that singing helps babies and children build up their capability for emotional self-control.
The study involved thirty hale and hearty infants aged six to nine months. It was initially proven in the study that the babies had the mental ability to respond to the music by observing displayed behaviours. Findings showed that the babies did get carried away by the music.
The babies were made to listen to recordings of baby talk, adult-directed speech to unfamiliar Turkish songs. When the researchers played the speech recordings, it was evident that the babies' displayed the 'cry face' (showing they are distressed) after 4 to 5 minutes.
On the other hand, the babies remained calm for an average duration of nine minutes when they were made to listen to Turkish songs. To further elucidate their findings, the researchers then exposed the infants to recordings of mothers singing songs in a familiar language. Same effect was noted.
Professor Peretz concludes that singing nursery rhymes to lull infants to maintain composure and sleep for extended periods is scientifically-proven effective.
