Music is something you can share with your baby while still in the room. You may enjoy dancing “with” them while you’re pregnant. However, did you know that music is proven to benefit your baby’s health and development in their first year? Let’s look at how tunes can support babies.

Singing soothes them (and you!).

Your voice is your baby’s favourite sound. Mum’s is familiar to them from about 15 weeks of pregnancy, and they may display a preference for her, but there is also evidence that dad (if he is around the bump later in pregnancy) will also be recognisable to them as someone to trust. Your voices soothe and calm them. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a terrible singer; your proximity, heartbeat, scent, and sound make them happy. Research suggests that your singing immediately lowers not only their cortisol levels but your own and that this positive effect lasts after you’ve stopped. Singing also supports parent-child bonding. Making singing part of your baby’s sleep routine helps you keep it in place.

White noise can help with crying and sleep.

This doesn’t work for every baby, but white noise mixed with piano melodies has been shown to keep babies from crying and help them sleep from the time they are newborns. White noise is a sort of constant background noise. It’s thought to mimic the sound that babies hear in the womb. Unii’s top paediatric consultant, Dr. Su Laurent, uses an active washing machine as an example you can use to calm a baby, though you can find white noise mixes on Spotify and other major music platforms these days.

Speech and language development

Music stimulates your baby brain. One study from the Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences detected that after babies listen to music, their auditory and prefrontal cortexes look different. These parts of the brain manage their processing of both music and speech. Singing (or attempting to do it in response to your demonstration) can also be a big part of a child’s early speech education. Think of everything you had a song for in childhood, from tidying the classroom to safely crossing roads. Singing is a successful early learning tool for a number of reasons, including repetition (which encourages memorisation), vocabulary development, the potential for mimicking your mouth and jaw movements, and fostering an understanding of assonance and alliteration.

Balance and coordination

‘Action songs” (think Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes or If You’re Happy and You Know It) encourage children to move with some sense of their body, as well as to practice their balance and physical coordination. We’re not talking about creating baby Baryshnicovs here; this is very early stuff, but attempting to dance along with you will make them happy, and practicing until their standing, jumping, hopping, etc. will be no chore as they grow. In playing songs that encourage them to move, you are also laying the groundwork for future skill-building. For example, many parents find potty training and bathtime songs useful later.

Relaxation and creativity

Music can alter our moods, and the same is true for babies. Whether you’re trying to distract them from a scary situation or celebrate a milestone, playing music and singing or clapping along can help them understand the vibe you want to create and keep them feeling focused, nurtured, and safe. Plus, as with story time, narrative tunes or those that encourage specific movements help encourage their developing creativity. Their capacity for wonder is limitless when the world is brand new. Soon they may be making up songs of their own.

The many benefits of baby music lessons.

Taking a music class with your baby may help support their development in multiple ways. These classes typically support early speech and language development with humming, regular songs, and practicing vocalisations and new vocabulary. Even if it doesn’t look like your child is doing much, they are sponging up what they see and hear, from repetitive sounds to how you and their other caregivers move your mouths, tongues, and teeth when you speak.

The socialisation involved in a group setting with other babies is also important to their development, especially if they have no siblings. Listening to music encourages dopamine production, which makes babies more apt to trust in and share with others.

You’ll also learn lots of tricks and techniques that you can try at home or doing daily activities—songs for the supermarket, etc. As with reading, these don’t need to be super complex or highbrow to be effective. Your baby benefits most from your consistent attention and tender loving care.

If they display enthusiasm for music education, you may like to have them continue into childhood music lessons. These can require significant commitment from both parents and children but have proven cognitive and neurological benefits. Research also suggests that they positively impact academic performance, particularly in mathematics.

Will playing classical music make my baby smarter?

This is a popular myth, unfortunately! People used to believe that this genre helps babies form neural pathways. This was based on a small 1993 study that was subsequently disproven, but the myth persists and is known as the Mozart effect. There is no evidence that playing classical music in pregnancy or after birth makes your baby more intelligent. On the positive side, if you hate classical music, you don’t have to feel you’re letting your child down by not playing it at home.

Being thoughtful about what you want your child to listen to is still good advice. Whether it's quiet instrumental music or a bouncy pop song with suggestive lyrics, it can affect your child’s mood and development, so try not to let them listen to anything inappropriate for their age, environment, or time of day.

For more evidence-based advice on giving your child the best start in life, watch Unii’s Baby Development Journey video course with Dr. Laurent.

How can music benefit my baby?

How can music boost your baby's wellbeing, sleep and development? Unii knows.