The Benefits of Singing to your Baby
There have been many pieces of research around how we, as parents and carers, can encourage a baby’s development, including research around the benefits of singing to a baby, something which comes naturally, indeed instinctively to a parent.
Here we set out ten benefits of singing to your baby:
- Baby learns your voice and develops a bond to you
- Singing is one of a baby’s favourite methods of play interaction
- Baby learns about words and communication as you sing
- When you sing about things around your baby, they learn to make associations
- Baby can learn their name by hearing it in songs
- Songs for different routines in your baby’s life, help them predict what comes next, making them feel safe and secure
- Music includes rhythm and rhyme, which are both part of developing a baby’s language
- Singing helps to develop a baby’s listening skills
- Music expresses emotion, which a baby learns from hearing your voice in the lyrics
- Your singing voice expresses love.
Examples of classic songs to sing to your baby include:
- If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap your Hands
- She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
- Incy-Wincy Spider
- This Little Piggy
- Hush Little Baby, Don’t You Cry
No matter what you sing to your baby, it will build the bond between you, and will lift baby’s mood – and yours.
