Notes

The findings were published recently in the scientific journals Developmental Science and Annals with the New York Academy of Sciences.

"Many past studies of musical training have dedicated to older children," says Laurel Trainor, director in the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind. "Our results suggest that the newborn brain might be particularly plastic regarding musical exposure."

Trainor, in addition to David Gerry, a music educator and graduate student, received an award through the Grammy Foundation in 2008 to analyze the results of musical trained in infancy. In the recent study, categories of babies and their parents spent six months taking part in a couple of types of weekly music instruction.

One music class involved interactive music-making and learning a smaller set of lullabies, nursery rhymes and songs with actions. look at this now and infants worked together to find out to try out percussion instruments, take turns and sing specific songs.

In one other music class, infants and parents played at various toy stations while recordings from the popular Baby Einstein series played inside background.

Before the classes began, all of the babies had shown similar communication and social development and none had previously took part in other baby music classes.

"Babies who participated within the interactive music classes using their parents showed earlier sensitivity on the pitch structure in music," says Trainor. "Specifically, they preferred to listen to a version of a piano piece that stayed in key, versus a version that included out-of-key notes. Infants who participated inside the passive listening classes would not show the same preferences. Even their brains replied to music differently. Infants from your interactive music classes showed larger and/or earlier brain responses to musical tones."

The non-musical differences between the two categories of babies were much more surprising, say researchers.

Babies through 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.

While both class types included playing music and each of the infants heard the same volume of music in your own home, a big difference relating to the classes was the interactive exposure to music.

"There a wide range of techniques parents can connect with their babies," says study coordinator Andrea Unrau. "The big plus with music is, we all love it and everyone can learn simple interactive musical games together."

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