Babies responding to song: Insights from developmental science

Around the world, parents and other family members sing to babies. Song can be an important avenue for cultural transmission, and a functional parenting tool for soothing infants to sleep, engaging them in play, or cheering them up if they are distressed.

In this lecture, Laura will review research exploring why and how parents sing to infants, and how infants respond to song. These studies use mixed methods, including parent questionnaire,  acoustic analyses, physiological recordings, and behavioural analyses. These studies reveal that from very early in life, song can help us regulate our emotions and connect with those around us. These early experiences with our first musical mentors may lay the foundation for a lifetime of musical listening – indeed, parents who sing most frequently to their children also report having been sung to by their own parents in their youth. You will end by discussing the ways that these empirical results can inform early musical programming, perhaps especially for families with reduced support.

🏷️ Price £30 (UK VAT inclusive)
🎥 Recording automatically sent to all who book (even if you cannot attend live)
▶️ Rewatch as many times as you like
📜 Certificate of attendance available