As a music therapist, I talk to parents of infants and toddlers about the benefits of including music into parent-child interactions and the environment. Music is fun and as simple or complex as you want it to be, and it brings many benefits for infants’ development including soothing and supporting sleep, reinforcing learning and stimulating communication, language and reading.

Exposure to a variety of stimuli contributes to babies’ development, and offering a musical environment, singing songs and moving to rhythms is certainly one enjoyable and beneficial way of engaging with your baby. Trust me, as a caregiver, you don’t have to be a trained musician!

Here are some ideas for active music making with your baby.

• Select a lullaby or two to sing for your baby each time she is put down to sleep. Sing in a slow, soft voice. Insert your baby’s name into the lullaby, or change the words!
• Sing If You’re Happy and You Know It, inserting the words smile, hug, kiss, or facial expressions. Pair the words with the motions. Do make eye contact with your baby throughout this activity, and exaggerate your positive response when your baby smiles or mimics.
• Give your infant a small shaker that fits well into her hand. Sing a song while helping your baby hand-over-hand. Fade hand-over-hand assistance and continue singing when the baby shakes the rattle, and stop singing when she stops. This type of music-assisted reinforcement works for a number of tasks and learning objectives throughout development. Use singing or music to reinforce head control, tummy time, crawling; don’t forget to stop the music/singing when the infant stops the movement.
• Find books that are also lullabies or songs, such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Wheels on the Bus, Snuggle Puppy, etc. Sing the book and point to the pictures, turn pages with your baby’s hand in yours, and repeat animal sounds several times.
• Use the same or similar songs to stimulate babbling and language development. Face your infant and exaggerate your facial formations for sounds. Use repetitive sounds and insert family members’ names as much as possible.
• Read and sing to your baby, talk with her and point out names of objects while you’re completing tasks. This exposes your baby to a richer vocabulary, improves phonological awareness, and teaches organized communication through modeling.
• A special note: As you present music to your baby, watch and respond to their reactions and cues. Remember that their little ears are more sensitive than ours; keep the volume to typical conversation level.

In my work, I try to engage parents into their child’s music therapy sessions as much as possible, when appropriate. Your baby doesn’t care about your musical ability, so sing away!

Active engagement into ANY type of an activity is much more effective for learning than passive listening. While that might appear obvious, sometimes parents give into bright advertising of the new and cool music CDs that promise to make your baby smarter. Sorry to disappoint, but listening to Mozart CDs will not have a direct effect on your baby’s intelligence. That said, it is a good idea to expose your child to different kinds of music throughout their childhood: vocal, instrumental, orchestral, music from different time periods, world music/music from different cultures, and so on.

So, make music with you baby, it will bring smiles to both of your faces.

How do you enjoy music with your baby?

Olena Chorna is a music therapist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Outside of work she enjoys cooking for friends and family, going to farmers markets, reading, being outdoors and traveling.