Babies don't need Mozart

Rather, just a Mother that sings to them

Excerpt: "Clearly, it pays to be skeptical about get-smart-quick schemes. But what if music does have a salutary effect on infants, one that is more about happiness than smarts? Every parent wants a baby who cries less and is easy to soothe.

Now a new study shows that music can help—as long as it’s created with your own vocal cords.The study, led by Eun Cho and Lidya Yurdum of the Yale Child Studies Center, looked at how often parents normally sing to their baby and whether that frequency could be juiced by a little music education and some electronic nudges. The researchers randomly divided 110 parents of 3-6 month old infants into two groups. Those in the experimental group were taught some simple folk songs using karaoke style sing-alongs, and were given a book of folk songs for children with lively illustrations, lyrics and pressable buttons. They also received weekly newsletters about music for 6 weeks.

Parents in both groups were prompted at random times to fill out surveys about what their babies were doing. Those in the music enrichment group reported that they had recently sung to their babies 89% of the time, compared to 65% for those in the control group. Clearly, when parents are given resources and encouragement, they are more likely to incorporate singing into their infants’ daily lives."