Babies can benefit from very early musical training even before they can walk or talk.
Researchers at McMaster University found that one-year-olds in interactive music classes with their parents smile more, communicate better and show earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
The findings were published recently in the scientific journals Developmental Science and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
"Many past studies of musical training have focused on older children," says Laurel Trainor, director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. "Our results suggest that the infant brain might be particularly plastic with regard to musical exposure."
"Babies who participated in the interactive music classes with their parents showed earlier sensitivity to the pitch structure in music," said Trainor.
The non-musical differences between the two groups of babies were even more surprising, say researchers.
Babies from the interactive classes showed better early communication skills, like pointing at objects that are out of reach, or waving goodbye. Socially, these babies also smiled more, were easier to soothe, and showed less distress when things were unfamiliar or didn't go their way.
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