Classical Music and Children – What the Research Tells Us

  •  January 8, 2024

Music is an important part of raising children

Mothers have been singing and rocking their infants since ancient times, with the earliest known lullaby having been found on a 5,000 year-old Babylonian clay tablet. It is pretty widely accepted that singing to your child is helps develop that unique bond but music has a special role to play that goes beyond singing. Studies have linked listening to music with expanding the language center of the brain, and other forms of cerebral development.

A ground breaking study in 19931 showed that the music of Mozart could raise a person’s IQ. Scientists rushed to see if playing classical music, particularly Mozart, would have a positive effect on babies. Every type of study was made, from playing Mozart while putting babies in water, or a “Baby Spa,”2 to measuring blood flow, and even brain waves in incubators while playing Mozart. Studies show that playing Mozart does have a positive effect on gross motor development, especially on premature babies. However, there are caveats as well as expansions to the theory.

Music greatly improves life for preterm babies in Neo-natal Intensive Care Units.

Two studies with premature infants addressed their particular needs in the NICU. One3, was particularly concerned with the extra stresses on babies from the stimuli of the outside world, including the sounds of other babies crying, the machines around them and the intrusive, sometimes painful procedures done to them. They said that these stresses cause abnormal neurological pathways in the brain which can lead to problems much later in life. They found that music could improve heart function, oxygen levels, breathing regularity, sleep quality, agitation, crying, irritability and restlessness.
In addition, they found that music increases sucking in nursing preterm infants which causes healthy weight gain, reduces stress, and reduces hospitalization time.
However, this wasn’t just true for Mozart’s music. In fact, they tested it in comparison with recordings of women singing lullabies and found that the lullabies actually helped more than the classical music.

Music helps develop babies’ brains

Another study4, showed that music played to premature babies caused them to have brain structures similar to those of full-term newborns. Through the use of brain imaging studies, they were able to show that music affected way more than the auditory part of the brain. In fact, it affected whole areas of the brain related to attention, motor functions and memory.
A study of full-term newborn babies5 showed that classical music and lullaby music had a positive effect on the babies’ body temperatures and oxygen saturation. Babies who listened to music were ready to leave the hospital a day earlier.

Music is language and enhances speech development

The primary long-term effect of listening to music as an infant seems to be enhanced language learning. A scientific study6 with 9-month-old babies used classical Waltz music and measured the effect on the babies’ brains. They found that the music enhanced the temporal and pre-frontal speech processing part of the brain. They suggested that listening to music could help children with their language skills.
This is not surprising, considering a study7 which pointed out that “spoken language is a special type of music.” (Brandt et al, 2012) They found music to be so different around the world that they defined it as “creative play with sound” (Brandt et al, 2012). This in-depth study of music from around the world showed that infants learn to sort sounds, which are like music, into speech. The fetus in the womb hears sounds that are muted to low frequency vowels and musical pitches. Newborns begin to analyze the rhythm and tone of what they hear and sort it into their native language. Brandt said “infants use the musical aspects of language (rhythm, timbral control, melodic contour) as a scaffolding for the later development of semantics and syntactic aspects of language.” (Brandt et al, 2012) Between 6 and 12 months of age, children’s understanding of sound begins to be more specific to their culture.

Interactive music helps infant develop socially

Language isn’t the only area of a child’s life that can be improved by music however. Much more can be improved. In another study8, music classes were given to 6-month-olds with their parents. The infants were divided into two groups, those who did musical activities with their parents, and those who listened to music while doing other activities with their parents. The infants who did musical activities with their parents were much calmer and showed much lower levels of distress than those who just played in tests afterwards. They suggested that active participation by parents with the musicx was essential for enhanced communication and social development.

Music stimulates brain activity in children and can improve many areas of their lives

Research shows, that listening to classical music makes children have higher IQs by impacting the neurons in their brains.9 They learn and understand language better. They said classical music increases intelligence by building pathways in the brain. “Babies are born with millions of neurons in the brain and these neurons are easily and quickly lost if unused.” (Misra, 2018) Listening to classical music stimulates nerve function. Ultimately this can affect memory, understanding, mood, physical activity, and emotional responses. This is also true for lullabies and playful music.

Classical music is complex and as such it affects many neural pathways in the brain, but nobody knows how much of the benefits of classical music is due to this complex stimulus or whether it just makes babies feel good.

A study of 8,000 children in Britain10 compared the effect of playing Mozart to playing pop music with older 10- and 11-year-olds, and found that the classical music did not improve special abilities at that age but that pop music did. They concluded that music has the best effect when it is enjoyed by the listener.

Music calms parents as well as children and creates a bond between both

Music also helps parents calm down and bond with their infants. One problem that is happening, is that on learning that music is good for children, some parents started playing music instead of singing, rocking, holding, patting, and playing with their children.11 Such activities are important because they communicate love and affection. Also, mothers who do these things feel closer to their babies. Babies feel less socially isolated, more content and more confident.

Music can change a baby’s life! [Best part is bonding and fun]

All these benefits are great and all but let’s not let these detract from the best part about listening to music together. It’s great constructive time that you can spend with your child and you might be surprised at their ability to groove as seen here.

References

1F. Rauscher, G. Shaw, C. Ky (1993) Music and spatial task performance, Nature, 365, 611

2N. Siregar, A. Amirah, M. Wulan (2022) The Effect of the Combination of the Baby Spa Method and Mozart’s Classical Music on the Gross Motor Development of Babies, International Journal Papier Advance and Scientific Review 3/1 025-032

3E. Amini, P. Rafiei, K. Zarei, M. Gohari, M. Hamidi (2013) Effect of lullaby and classical music on physiologic stability of hospitalized preterm infants: A randomized trial, Journal of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, 6, 295–301

4L. Lordier, D. Meskaldji, F. Grouiller, M. Pittet, A. Vollenweider, L. Vasung, C. Borridori-Tulsa, F. Lazeyras, D. Grandjean, D. Van De Ville, P. Huppi (2018) Music in premature infants enhances high-level cognitive brain networks, PNAS  116/24, 12103–12108

5B. Alay, F. Esenay (2019) The clinical effect of classical music and lullaby on term babies in neonatal intensive care unit: A randomised controlled trial, J Pak Med Assoc, 69/04 459-463

6T. Zhao, P. Kuhl, (2016) Musical intervention enhances infants’ neural processing of temporal structure in music and speech, PNAS 113/19 5212-5217

7A. Brandt, M. Gebrian, L, Slevc (2012) Music and early language acquisition, Frontiers in Psychology|Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience 3/327 1-17

8D. Gerry, A. Unrau, L. Trainor (2012) Active music classes in infancy enhance musical, communicative and social development, Developmental Science 15/3 398-407

9S. Misra (2018) Musical Sensitivity in the Personality and Behavior of Infants, Creative Education, 9, 950-958

10E. Schellenberg, S. Hallam (2005) Music Listening and Cognitive Abilities in 10- and 11-Year-Olds: The Blur Effect, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 1060: 202–209