“How Music May Make Babies Team Players,” is the title of an article by Nicholas Bakalar in the New York Times, July 4, 2014. He reports on a new study involving toddlers:
Moving with a partner to the musical beat may make people more cooperative –
even babies as young as 14 months. Researchers worked with 48 toddlers, each held by an assistant and gently bounced for about two minutes to the rhythm of the Beatles’ version of “Twist and Shout.” They faced an experimenter who bounced in the same rhythm or off the beat.
Then the scientists tested whether the babies would help out when an experimenter “accidentally” dropped an object, or tried to pick up an object just out of hand’s reach. The study was published online in Developmental Science.
After controlling for other behaviors, such as smiling or approaching the experimenter, they found that babies who were bounced in a synchronous rhythm were slightly but significantly more likely to help than those who were bounced off beat. Although the effect was moderate, the authors say, it was still impressive given the quite short duration of the interaction.
“We tend to think that music is a frill that doesn’t matter,” said the lead author, Laurel J. Trainor, a professor of psychology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. “But in fact, these social binds that we form early in development affect everything that happens later, including our ability to learn and how we view others and ourselves.”
This Grandma is all for dancing and singing with our grandchildren as soon as they can hold up their heads! All of the grandchildren, as babies and toddlers, took a “Music Together” class. When I visited and took them to class, it was delightful to watch them learn and play—and sing and dance with them. The classes go from birth to age 7 and they will put siblings together in a multi-age class. Check out their website for a class near you.
Here is what Music Together advertises on their website:
Music Together is an internationally recognized early childhood music and movement program for children from birth through age 7-and the grownups who love them. First offered to the public in 1987, it pioneered the concept of a research-based, developmentally appropriate early childhood music curriculum that strongly emphasizes and facilitates adult involvement.
Music Together classes are based on the recognition that all children are musical. All children can learn to sing in tune, keep a beat, and participate with confidence in the music of our culture, provided that their early environment supports such learning.
Now we also know that music supports team work! If you want “Twist and Shout” to “shake it up” with your grandchildren and don’t remember the words, here is the link to the youtube original version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTaqn8_gMR0
Do not even dare to say you do not remember this first version by the Isley Brothers! Another longie (we never say old-ie) from the Isley Brothers that shows them singing for you to introduce your grandchildren of any age to this great band and “Shout” is on youtube, with an original black and white video as well.
Even if there is not a Music Together near your grandchildren’s home, many community centers offer music classes and experiences for babies, toddlers, and older children. Think music – singing and dancing – as an activity to sponsor as a grandma, and even participate in with your grandchild to enhance their lives and ours.
Joy,
Mema