Newborn Motor Development & Music

Infant Motor Skills

• During the first three months of life, your baby is rapidly becoming accustomed to the world around him. It may seem like he is mostly exercising his vocal chords, but all of those seemingly random kicks and waves are exercising his core muscles. By 6 or 7 months, your baby may be sitting proudly on his own, and a few short months later, he̵7;ll be exploring the world from his own two feet. During the first year of life, your baby will show his greatest progression in motor skills development.

How Music Affects Development

• Scientists are not yet sure of the direct impact of music on a newborn̵7;s movement, but they have learned from observing behavior. Researchers at the Northwestern University Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory report that music seemed to improve babies̵7; memory and cognitive development in their studies. Since muscle memory is a large part of learning to use motor skills, logic follows that music would also impact motor skills. Music also has proven that it can immediately soothe an infant. Enhance the impact of music with an early lesson in rhythm by bouncing your child on your lap in time to the music or dancing around the living room to the tempo.

Types of Music

• Research dating as far back as the 1993 study by neurologist F. H. Rauscher suggests that the rhythms and patterns of music contribute to the spatial awareness section of the brain, as shown in the ̶0;Mozart Effect̶1; report. While evidence in types of music is not conclusive at an infant level, it is clear that newborns enjoy repeated patterns and definite rhythm. Within the first two months of your baby's life, even simply singing a song will awaken your his temporal lobe since a newborn is especially receptive to the sound of his mother̵7;s voice, according to the National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families. Expose your child to a variety of types of music with different rhythms, instruments and tempos.

Consideration

• Be careful with the volume of music since a newborn̵7;s hearing can be easily damaged by too many decibels. Choose certain times of the day to experiment with music, since it is also crucial that your child learns to be comfortable with silence. If an infant grows up with constant noise, whether it be music, white noise or a nighttime sound machine, he will have a more difficult time with silence as a young person. Learning how to comfort himself with or without sound is another important skill a newborn needs to develop during the earliest months of life.