Singing with Infants Promotes Bonding
Amelia Bachleda: Singing – we know it's universal. We know that babies love it. But it turns out that it also promotes bonding between the adult and child.
Marie Baeta: We know that singing to infants really creates this wonderful opportunity for these close interactions, where the babies really feel paid attention to, and the caregivers are really tuning in to their cues of how the baby wants to interact through music and rhythm. Research shows that these interactions can be a very powerful bonding experience for both the adult and the infant.
Not only does the infant-directed singing capture the baby's attention, but it also helps to modulate and regulate their emotions and their feelings, to calm them when they need calming, to make them feel happy and joyful when they're playing, and it really helps reduce their stress. This tuning into the cues of the baby really helps to meet their needs and support the baby in learning how to regulate their own emotions. Infants are just starting to learn. What do I do with these big emotions?
Caregivers, through music, can really use music as a tool to help them internalize ways of soothing themselves. Singing also supports toddlers, too. As we know, toddlers have really big emotions as well, and so creating songs to help them name what they might be feeling or help them with transitions or to help redirect their behavior – music is really a great tool to be used between caregivers and young children.
Singing to infants supports their emotional regulation and helps them learn to manage their own feelings and emotions. Singing to infants also promotes bonding between caregiver and infant. Learn about how singing supports these early connections and builds social and emotional skills.
