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The effects of music and movement on mother–infant interactions
Early Child Development and Care
Abstract
Two experiments investigated the effects of a music and movement (M&M) programme on healthy first-time mothers and their 2–6-month-old infants over a five-week period. Experiment 1 (N = 96) examined the effects of the M&M activities and the face-to-face (F2F) social contact of a group instruction method on the perception of mothers' interactions with their infants and maternal postnatal attachment. Generally, M&M increased mothers' interactions with their infants specific to music-type activities and mothers' attachment to their infants. Contrary results occurred for No M&M-control group mothers. The presence/absence of F2F had no effect. Experiment 2 (N = 44) focused on behavioural effects of M&M on mothers' infant-directed speech (IDS) and mother–infant reciprocity. M&M increased dyadic reciprocity, and increased the duration, mean pitch and pitch range of mothers' IDS. Without M&M a decrease in attentional characteristics of mothers' IDS and dyadic reciprocity occurred.
... Rocking or bouncing an infant while singing to them likely affects caregivers and infants similarly. Across a number of studies, parents report that singing increases feelings of closeness and attachment to their child (Creighton et al., 2013;Fancourt & Perkins, 2018;Vlismas et al., 2013). In addition, joint musical engagement of parents and children has been shown to increase affective attachment and engagement during play between dyads (Vlismas et al., 2013). ...
... Across a number of studies, parents report that singing increases feelings of closeness and attachment to their child (Creighton et al., 2013;Fancourt & Perkins, 2018;Vlismas et al., 2013). In addition, joint musical engagement of parents and children has been shown to increase affective attachment and engagement during play between dyads (Vlismas et al., 2013). Corroborating these effects, during the Covid-19 pandemic, parents also reported increased parent-child attachment as they engaged more often in musical activities (Steinberg et al., 2021). ...
A growing body of research shows that the universal capacity for music perception and production emerges early in development. Possibly building on this predisposition, caregivers around the world often communicate with infants using songs or speech entailing song-like characteristics. This suggests that music might be one of the earliest developing and most accessible forms of interpersonal communication, providing a platform for studying early communicative behavior. However, little research has examined music in truly communicative contexts. The current work aims to facilitate the development of experimental approaches that rely on dynamic and naturalistic social interactions. We first review two longstanding lines of research that examine musical interactions by focusing either on the caregiver or the infant. These include defining the acoustic and non-acoustic features that characterize infant-directed (ID) music, as well as behavioral and neurophysiological research examining infants’ processing of musical timing and pitch. Next, we review recent studies looking at early musical interactions holistically. This research focuses on how caregivers and infants interact using music to achieve co-regulation, mutual engagement, and increase affiliation and prosocial behavior. We conclude by discussing methodological, technological, and analytical developments that might empower a comprehensive study of musical communication in early childhood.
... Recent studies have evidenced the beneficial effects of community group singing on various aspects of mental health [10,16,17]. Singing to new babies is a common practice utilised cross-culturally around the world, and studies show that singing to newborns not only improves maternal mood, aspects of self-esteem, and sense of wellbeing, but also enhances the developing bond with a baby, aids in the mother-infant interaction, and helps to soothe babies in distress [10,[18][19][20][21]. Taken together, these studies suggest that singing is an efficacious way to Breathe Melodies for Mums (M4M) is a singing intervention that was developed by the Breathe Arts Health Research on the basis of research evidence generated as part of a collaboration between the Royal College of Music, Imperial College London, and University College London from 2015 to 2017. ...
... Additionally, such treatments appear to have similar efficacy to face-to-face therapy [30]. Online interventions specifically for mothers with PND offer promising results in overcoming some of the main barriers to treatment access [20], as they reduce obstacles such as perceived stigma, fear of contracting COVID-19 from social contacts, they are more easily accessible, and can target groups of women who would struggle to attend in-person sessions. Thus, online treatments hold the potential to empower women with depression to take effective and manageable steps to overcome their mental health difficulties. ...
Background
Postnatal depression (PND) affects 13% of new mothers, with numbers rising during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this prevalence, many women have difficulty with or hesitancy towards accessing pharmacological and/or psychological interventions. Group-based mother-baby activities, however, have a good uptake, with singing improving maternal mental health and the mother-infant relationship. The recent lockdowns highlight the importance of adapting activities to an online platform that is wide-reaching and accessible.
Aims
The SHAPER-PNDO study will primarily analyse the feasibility of a 6-week online singing intervention, Melodies for Mums (M4M), for mothers with PND who are experiencing barriers to treatment. The secondary aim of the SHAPER-PNDO study will be to analyse the clinical efficacy of the 6-week M4M intervention for symptoms of postnatal depression.
Methods
A total of 120 mothers and their babies will be recruited for this single-arm study. All dyads will attend 6 weekly online singing sessions, facilitated by Breathe Arts Health Research. Assessments will be conducted on Zoom at baseline and week 6, with follow-ups at weeks 16 and 32, and will contain interviews for demographics, mental health, and social circumstances, and biological samples will be taken for stress markers. Qualitative interviews will be undertaken to understand the experiences of women attending the sessions and the facilitators delivering them. Finally, data will be collected on recruitment, study uptake and attendance of the programme, participant retention, and acceptability of the intervention.
Discussion
The SHAPER-PNDO study will focus on the feasibility, alongside the clinical efficacy, of an online delivery of M4M, available to all mothers with PND. We hope to provide a more accessible, effective treatment option for mothers with PND that can be available both during and outside of the pandemic for mothers who would otherwise struggle to attend in-person sessions, as well as to prepare for a subsequent hybrid RCT.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04857593 . Registered retrospectively on 22 April 2021. The first participants were recruited on 27 January 2021, and the trial is ongoing.
... For example, caregivers around the world sing lullabies to infants under distress or before bedtime to soothe and calm them (Mehr et al., 2018;Trehub and Trainor, 1998). Playsongs or rhymes, often accompanied by finger games, tickling or other body movement, arouse infants and enhance reciprocity in mother-infant interactions during playtime (Rock et al., 1999;Vlismas et al., 2013). Many parents in Western societies start narrating stories as early as after birth as part of their daily routines, with potential benefits for children's word learning and later reading capacities (Montag et al., 2015). ...
... There are a number of possible reasons for this. First, the ritualized and highly repeated character of dyadic codified interactions [see Vlismas et al. (2013) for similar results] may particularly enhance reciprocal engagement of mother and infant in the interaction (Margulis 2014), but not linguistic meaning or form. Second, low infant age (6 month) in the study could have counteracted clarity effects as vowel clarity in mothers' speech seems to peak during infants' critical phase for word learning which starts around a year of life [e.g., Bernstein Ratner (1984); see also Han et al. (2018), for similar results on lexical tone]. ...
Nursery rhymes, lullabies, or traditional stories are pieces of oral tradition that constitute an integral part of communication between caregivers and preverbal infants. Caregivers use a distinct acoustic style when singing or narrating to their infants. Unlike spontaneous infant-directed (ID) interactions, codified interactions benefit from highly stable acoustics due to their repetitive character. The aim of the study was to determine whether specific combinations of acoustic traits (i.e., vowel pitch, duration, spectral structure, and their variability) form characteristic “signatures” of different communicative dimensions during codified interactions, such as vocalization type, interactive stimulation, and infant-directedness. Bayesian analysis, applied to over 14 000 vowels from codified live interactions between mothers and their 6-months-old infants, showed that a few acoustic traits prominently characterize arousing vs calm interactions and sung vs spoken interactions. While pitch and duration and their variation played a prominent role in constituting these signatures, more linguistic aspects such as vowel clarity showed small or no
effects. Infant-directedness was identifiable in a larger set of acoustic cues than the other dimensions. These findings provide insights into the functions of acoustic variation of ID communication and into the potential role of codified interactions for infants’ learning about communicative intent and expressive forms typical of language and music.
... Music can play a crucial role to support people at all stages of life: from helping new-born babies develop healthy bonds with their parents to offering vital, sensitive, and compassionate palliative care at the end of life. Singing to new-borns, a widespread activity practised worldwide, has been demonstrated to have valuable benefits such as improving mother-infant interaction and reducing infant distress (Vlismas et al., 2013;Mualem and Klein, 2013a). In the same way, music has been reported as an aid in the reduction of anxiety and agitation in older adults with senile dementia (Sung et al., 2012). ...
... A study conducted by Vlismas et al. (2013) on the effect of music and movement on mother-infant interactions showed that maternal engagement in a music and movement programme resulted in changes to both mothers' and infants' behavior. Specifically, it showed that the effect of the programme increased the mothers' self-reported use of music and enjoyment of interactions with their infants; the mothers' self-reported attachment to their infants; the dyadic reciprocity between mother and infant; and the attentional and affective aspects of mothers' speech. ...
Music is a crucial element of everyday life and plays a central role in all human cultures: it is omnipresent and is listened to and played by persons of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds. But music is not simply entertainment: scientific research has shown that it can influence physiological processes that enhance physical and mental wellbeing. Consequently, it can have critical adaptive functions. Studies on patients diagnosed with mental disorders have shown a visible improvement in their mental health after interventions using music as primary tool. Other studies have demonstrated the benefits of music, including improved heart rate, motor skills, brain stimulation, and immune system enhancement. Mental and physical illnesses can be costly in terms of medications and psychological care, and music can offer a less expansive addition to an individual's treatment regimen. Interventions using music offers music-based activities in both a therapeutic environment (Music therapy) with the support of a trained professional, and non-therapeutic setting, providing an atmosphere that is positive, supportive, and proactive while learning non-invasive techniques to treat symptoms associated with various disorders – and possibly modulate the immune system.
... The health outcomes measured differed widely across the four studies. These included improved measures of cognitive health in the participants with mild cognitive impairment (Doi et al., 2017); healthy weight measures (BMI and % body fat) of African American women (Murrock and Gary, 2010); improved cognitive health among stroke survivors (Jeong and Kim, 2007); and mental health of new mothers (Vlismas et al., 2013). ...
... While social connection was acknowledged as an important process across most of these studies, only two measured types of social connection. Interventions were found to improve the quality of interpersonal relationships for stroke survivors compared to people who did not participate in movement interventions (Jeong and Kim, 2007), and to improve interactions between mothers and their infants (Vlismas et al., 2013). Specifically, mothers felt that they enjoyed interactions with their infants more and reported increases in dyadic reciprocity between them. ...
Background: This scoping review analyzed research about how music activities may affect participants' health and well-being. Primary outcomes were measures of health (including symptoms and health behaviors) and well-being. Secondary measures included a range of psychosocial processes such as arousal, mood, social connection, physical activation or relaxation, cognitive functions, and identity. Diverse music activities were considered: receptive and intentional music listening; sharing music; instrument playing; group singing; lyrics and rapping; movement and dance; and songwriting, composition, and improvisation.
Methods: Nine databases were searched with terms related to the eight music activities and the psychosocial variables of interest. Sixty-three papers met selection criteria, representing 6,975 participants of all ages, nationalities, and contexts.
Results: Receptive and intentional music listening were found to reduce pain through changes in physiological arousal in some studies but not others. Shared music listening (e.g., concerts or radio programs) enhanced social connections and mood in older adults and in hospital patients. Music listening and carer singing decreased agitation and improved posture, movement, and well-being of people with dementia. Group singing supported cognitive health and well-being of older adults and those with mental health problems, lung disease, stroke, and dementia through its effects on cognitive functions, mood, and social connections. Playing a musical instrument was associated with improved cognitive health and well-being in school students, older adults, and people with mild brain injuries via effects on motor, cognitive and social processes. Dance and movement with music programs were associated with improved health and well-being in people with dementia, women with postnatal depression, and sedentary women with obesity through various cognitive, physical, and social processes. Rapping, songwriting, and composition helped the well-being of marginalized people through effects on social and cultural inclusion and connection, self-esteem and empowerment.
Discussion: Music activities offer a rich and underutilized resource for health and well-being to participants of diverse ages, backgrounds, and settings. The review provides preliminary evidence that particular music activities may be recommended for specific psychosocial purposes and for specific health conditions.
... There are some examples of the effective use of music therapy with mothers and their babies, as a dyad or in a group of dyads, not specifically intended for post-NICU hospitalization [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. They use different music therapy-oriented techniques that can be adapted to work with post-NICU dyads. ...
... This method was developed to enhance daily parenting skills, and to strengthen the attachment of at-risk families using various musical activities, such as instrumental play, action songs, and movement songs, to encourage physical touch and bonding. The Music and Movement program [48], to give another example, uses vocal, gestural, and rhythmical movement activities to promote the interactions of first-time mothers with their 2-to 6-month-old infants, and to enhance maternal well-being. Another form of group therapy that is intended for first-time mothers is Baker and Mackinlay's (2006) [50] educative music therapy program, in which mothers are trained to use lullabies effectively with their very young babies (6 weeks to 18 months). ...
While much advancement has been documented in the practice of music therapy in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) environment, there is currently a shortage of music therapy-based methods for NICU-discharged dyads. Back in their homes, mothers might feel alone, lacking guidance, and possibly losing their parental efficacy and their ability to communicate with their baby. In this article, we present a method for nurturing the communicative parental efficacy (CoPE) that was successfully practiced with several NICU-discharged dyads. In eight weekly sessions, the music therapist improvises with the dyad and focuses on (1) containing the mother’s emotions; (2) modeling musical interactions with the baby; and (3) practicing these musical interactions with the mother, enabling her to gain communicative parental efficacy. The basic ideas of CoPE are outlined, and a short case study is then described, to demonstrate how it is used. Finally, suggestions for future directions for the development of CoPE are provided.
... Način na koji dojenče reagira na opisanu interakciju lako potiče osjećaje intimnosti prema majci (28,29), što se prema postignutim rezultatima pokazalo učinkovitim za jačanje privrženosti i vlastitog osjećaja roditeljske kompetentnosti. Takve pozitivne interakcije mogu biti vitalne za majke koje se bore sa svakodnevnim zahtjevima majčinstva te su stoga preventivna mjera u potencijalnoj pojavi postnatalne depresije i nesigurnih obrazaca privrženosti (30). ...
... The way the infant responds to the described interaction easily fosters feelings of intimacy toward the mother (28; 29), which, according to the results obtained in the current study, is effective in enhancing attachment and one's own sense of parental competence. Such positive interactions can be vital in facilitating coping with the daily demands of motherhood and are therefore a preventative measure in the potential onset of postnatal depression and insecure attachment patterns (30). ...
Early experience of emotional communication contributes to the attachment between mother and infant and has an impact on the child’s neurological, social, and emotional development. By applying music therapy activities aimed at parent-child interaction, it is possible to create experiences in which the mother and child share the rhythm, tempo, melody, and pitch of their voices, what are all intrinsic elements of the early attachment process. The aim of this paper was to explore the possibility of applying music therapy in promoting maternal attachment and self-perceived parental competence in mothers at risk. The study was conducted on a sample of three mothers and their infants who were enrolled in a music therapy program once a week for 10 weeks. Before and after conducting music therapy, the mothers completed the Maternal Postnatal Affection Scale and the Parental Sense of Competence Scale. The obtained results indicate the positive outcomes of music therapy in enhancing maternal attachment in mothers at risk as well as the level of selfperceived competence in parental role. Music therapy intervention can be integrated as a therapeutic approach aimed at enhancing attachment in the mother-infant dyad and at fostering parental competence in mothers at-risk.
... Drawing on research related to mothereinfant relationships, infant speech and sound preferences, and music-making, Creighton [115] theorized that singing and lullabies could enhance mothereinfant emotional communication and maternal emotional availability, leading to more secure attachment relationships. A recent study provided some evidence on singing/lullabies and infantemother attachment [116]. After participating in a music and movement program, which included the teaching of songs and lullabies, mothers of 2e6 moold infants showed increased mothereinfant reciprocity and duration of infant directed speech, as well as more positive maternal perceptions of mothereinfant attachment, compared to mothers in the control condition [116]. ...
... A recent study provided some evidence on singing/lullabies and infantemother attachment [116]. After participating in a music and movement program, which included the teaching of songs and lullabies, mothers of 2e6 moold infants showed increased mothereinfant reciprocity and duration of infant directed speech, as well as more positive maternal perceptions of mothereinfant attachment, compared to mothers in the control condition [116]. ...
This paper presents a conceptual model and reviews the empirical evidence to support a nightly bedtime routine as a key factor in the promotion of not only healthy sleep, but also of broad development and wellbeing in early childhood. A bedtime routine embodies the characteristics of nurturing care and early child stimulation, which are deemed to be essential for positive outcomes, especially for at-risk children. Furthermore, common, adaptive components of a bedtime routine can contribute to an array of positive developmental outcomes beyond improved sleep, inclusive of language development, literacy, child emotional and behavioral regulation, parent-child attachment, and family functioning, among other outcomes. These bedtime routine components include activities in the broad domains of nutrition (e.g., feeding, healthy snack), hygiene (e.g., bathing, oral care), communication (e.g., reading, singing/lullabies) and physical contact (e.g., massage, cuddling/rocking). A bedtime routine can provide multiple benefits to child and family functioning at a time of day that many parents are present with their children. Although additional research on hypothesized routine-related child outcomes and mechanisms of action are needed, promoting a bedtime routine may be a feasible and cost-effective method to promote positive early childhood development worldwide, particularly for socioeconomically disadvantaged and other at-risk young children.
... Even fewer interventions, either in Scandinavia or internationally, are aimed at a universal sample of parents with infants [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. Three of these programs are delivered postnatally in a group format: (1) Toddlers Without Tears (Australia), with three sessions from age eight months [45,48]; (2) Face to Face (Australia), with five sessions from three months [49]; and (3) an American trial of parent training, with eight sessions from age eight months [50]. None of the studies, however, finds any effects on child development or the parent-child relationship. ...
... A recent systematic review of the effects of universal interventions for parents with infants on child development and the parent-child relationship found mixed results for the effect of universal interventions [78]. The systematic review includes three universal interventions discussed in the introduction: the Australian Toddlers Without Tears program [45,48], the Australian Face to Face program [49], and the US trial of parent training [50]. None of the three RCTs found intervention effects. ...
Introduction:
Infancy is an important period of life; adverse experiences during this stage can have both immediate and lifelong impacts on the child's mental health and well-being. This study evaluates the effects of offering the Incredible Years Parents and Babies (IYPB) program as a universal intervention.
Method:
We conducted a pragmatic, two-arm, parallel pilot randomized controlled trial; 112 families with newborns were randomized to the IYPB program (76) or usual care (36) with a 2:1 allocation ratio. The primary outcome was parenting confidence at 20 weeks(Karitane Parenting Confidence Scale and Parental Stress Scale). Secondary outcomes include measures of parent health, parent-child relationship, infant development, parent-child activities, and network. Interviewers and data analysts were blind to allocation status. Multiple linear-regression analyses were used for evaluating the effects of the intervention.
Results:
There were no intervention effects on the primary outcomes. Only one effect was detected for secondary outcomes, intervention mothers reported a significantly smaller network than control mothers (β = -0.15 [-1.85,-0.28]). When examining the lowest-functioning mothers in moderator analyses, we found that intervention mothers reported significantly higher parent stress (β = 5.33 [0.27,10.38]), lower parenting confidence (β = -2.37 [-4.45,-0.29]), and worse mental health than control mothers (β = -18.62 [-32.40,-4.84]). In contrast, the highest functioning intervention mothers reported significantly lower parent stress post-intervention (β = -6.11 [-11.07,-1.14]).
Conclusion:
Overall, we found no effects of the IYPB as a universal intervention for parents with infants. The intervention was developed to be used with groups of low functioning families and may need to be adapted to be effective with universal parent groups. The differential outcomes for the lowest and highest functioning families suggest that future research should evaluate the effects of delivering the IYPB intervention to groups of parents who have similar experiences with parenting and mental health.
Trial registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01931917.
... In contrast, the K2 B teacher used music and storytelling to stimulate deep thinking through engaging questions. Music and movement are effective management strategies that facilitate learning through trial and error while enhancing communication and teamwork skills (Vlismas et al., 2013;Yazejian & Peisner-Feinberg, 2009). Storytelling promotes vocabulary and communication skills (Brodin & Renblad, 2020;Reese et al., 2010), while stimulating questions encourage critical thinking and active engagement (Whorrall & Cabell, 2016). ...
Expectations for preschool education have risen, focusing on holistic child development and language skills. Parents increasingly prioritize language development while preschool teachers strive to integrate 21st-century skills, balancing these demands with the child’s overall growth. Research underscores the crucial role of teachers in fostering positive relationships with students, significantly impacting motivation and development. This study examines the importance of supportive teacher-student interactions across four key areas: teacher-child interactions, emotional support, instructional support, and classroom management. It specifically investigates how these interactions influence preschoolers' spoken narrative skills. Data were collected through observations, semi-structured interviews with teachers, and document analysis, involving 14 kindergarten 2 participants from SIS Semarang Preschool. Findings reveal that supportive interactions enhance children's speaking abilities and confidence while promoting their social and emotional well-being. Notably, three children faced language difficulties, and eleven required vocabulary enrichment. The study's insights suggest that early childhood educators should focus on developing strategies to cultivate positive relationships and environments conducive to children's mental, social, and emotional growth.
... Music strengthens relationships and helps establish attachment (see Bowlby, 1983) between the members of a family. As noted by Vlismas et al. (2013), Byrn and Hourigan (2010), and recently Young et al. (2022), musical interactions promote bonding and are central to the infant-caregiver relationship. ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of a group of mothers who participated in an online musical parenting educational program. The participants comprised 18 mothers with infants from birth to 12 months old. This study was conducted for 6 months using qualitative research methods: semi-structured interviews and informal discussions with mother-participants, participants’ digital journals and filmed videos, and researcher field notes taken during the educational program. Findings revealed that during the program, mothers engaged in multimodal musical interaction with their infants, which facilitated a dynamic state of attunement within the mother-infant dyad. Active participation in the educational program fostered mothers’ confidence in using music as a parenting tool and enhanced conscious musical parenting practices with their infants. I discuss implications for musical parenting educational programs and research.
... This multimodality is manifested when caregivers talk and sing to infants, which often happens in conjunction with touch and movement, for example, when caregivers sing to infants while rocking or bouncing them to the regular beat of the music (Cirelli et al., 2018). Vlismas et al. (2012) proposed that mothers preferred songs and rhymes that also have rhythmic movements when they engage with their infants. ...
This methodological paper examines the assessment of interpersonal synchrony during a joint dancing task between mothers and their children (aged 4 to 5 years) using OpenPose. This pose estimation tool captures movement in naturalistic settings. The study analyzes 45 mother–child dyads, comparing two analytical methods for assessing synchrony, and examines their correlation with the Coding Interactive Behavior (CIB) measure of interaction quality. The first method employs cross-wavelet transform (CWT) coherence to assess synchrony based on vertical head movement. This straightforward and computationally efficient approach reveals a significant correlation between interpersonal synchrony and CIB scores, thus implying its potential as a reliable indicator of interaction quality and suggesting its potential as a measure of interaction quality. The second method, the generalized cross-wavelet transform (GCWT), analyzes synchrony across multiple body parts, offering a more complex and detailed analysis of interpersonal dynamics. However, it did not significantly correlate with the CIB scores. Our findings suggest that focusing on head movement using CWT can effectively capture critical elements of interpersonal synchrony linked to interaction quality. In contrast, despite its richness, the more complex GCWT approach may not align as closely with observed interactive behaviors as the CIB scores indicate. This study underscores the need to balance methodological complexity and ecological validity in research, offering insights into selecting analytical techniques based on research objectives and the nuances of interpersonal dynamics. Our results contribute to the field of interpersonal synchrony research, emphasizing the benefits of efficient methods in understanding mother–child interactions and interaction relationships in general.
... Additionally, singing and musical interactions are found to improve caregiver-child emotional bonds of attachment (Bonnár, 2014;Brisola et al., 2019;Savage et al., 2021;Trehub, 1997;Vlismas, 2007;Vlismas et al., 2013). Bonnár (2015) mentions that lullaby singing is an important part of caregiving in every known culture, concluding that lullabies nurture the parent-child relationship "in a deep and tacit sense" and promote a sense of "contact, relatedness, intimacy and closeness" (Bonnár, 2015, p. 341). ...
Research on early care finds that singing is an important part of the emotional communication between child and caregiver in both parenting and day-care. Singing to children enhances attachment and supports affect regulation. In order to explore the role of singing in emotional care for children in day-care settings, the singing practices of a Steiner Waldorf day-care centre were studied. The research method used was psychodynamic infant observation. The study finds that singing creates an intersubjective and interaffective field, which facilitates a shared experience. The teachers create this field by “holding space” while singing. Singing functions as a means of collective affect regulation, and the imagery and storylines of the songs are found to enhance engagement in the shared intersubjective and interaffective field of experience.
... During early development, the rhythmic content of music plays an important role in social bonding and prosocial behavior (a common experience in an infant's social world) (Cirelli et al., 2014). Singing and musical interactions directly improve parent-infant attachment via synchronization (Cirelli and Trehub, 2020;Corbeil et al., 2016;Nakata and Trehub, 2004;Trehub, 2015;Trehub et al., 2015;Vlismas et al., 2013). For example, infant-directed singing has been shown to entrain the social behavior of infants at 2 months and 6 months, and visual cues of the caregiver are also entrained to the rhythm and response of the infant (Lense et al., 2022). ...
Studies of rhythm processing and of reward have progressed separately, with little connection between the two. However, consistent links between rhythm and reward are beginning to surface, with research suggesting that synchronization to rhythm is rewarding, and that this rewarding element may in turn also boost this synchronization. The current mini review shows that the combined study of rhythm and reward can be beneficial to better understand their independent and combined roles across two central aspects of cognition: 1) learning and memory, and 2) social connection and interpersonal synchronization; which have so far been studied largely independently. From this basis, it is discussed how connections between rhythm and reward can be applied to learning and memory and social connection across different populations, taking into account individual differences, clinical populations, human development, and animal research. Future research will need to consider the rewarding nature of rhythm, and that rhythm can in turn boost reward, potentially enhancing other cognitive and social processes.
... This would have implications for the developmental and cognitive bases of musical engagement, and the link between music and movement (Cannon & Patel, 2021;Schachner et al., 2009). If movement to music is a common part of infants' behavioral repertoire, it would also likely have consequences for early social development: Music and dance positively impact social well-being (Savage et al., 2020;Steinberg et al., 2021), and activities involving movement to music improve parent-child attachment and promote prosocial behavior more than similar nonmusical activities (Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010;Vlismas et al., 2013). ...
Dance is a universal human behavior and a crucial component of human musicality. When and how does the motivation and tendency to move to music develop? How does this behavior change as a process of maturation and learning? We characterize infants’ earliest dance behavior, leveraging parents’ extensive at-home observations of their children. Parents of infants aged 0–24 months (N = 278, 82.7% White, 84.5% in the United States, 46.0% of household incomes ≥$100,000) were surveyed regarding their child’s current and earliest dance behavior (movement by the child, during music, that the parent considered dance), motor development, and their own infant-directed dance. We found that dance begins early: 90% of infants produced recognizable dance by 12.8 months, and the age of onset was not solely a function of motor development. Infants who produced dance did so often, on average almost every day. We also found that dance shows qualitative developmental change over the first 2 years, rather than remaining stable. With motor development, age, and more time dancing, infants used a greater variety of movements in dance, and began to incorporate learned, imitated gestures (80% of infants by 17.9 months). 99.8% of parents reported dancing for or with their infants, raising questions about the role of infant-directed dance. These findings provide evidence that the motivation and tendency to move to music appears extremely early and that both learning and maturation lead to qualitative change in dance behavior during the first 2 years, informing broad questions about the origins of human musicality.
... Multiple empirical studies support the notion that music is capable of fostering social connectedness. For example, starting from infancy, studies have shown that singing increases perceived closeness between a mother and their infant, and does so to a greater degree than non-musical play (Fancourt & Perkins;Kostilainen et al., 2021;Vlismas et al., 2013). Similarly, 14-month-old infants who were bounced in synchrony with the movements of an experimenter, were more likely to display prosocial behavior than if bounced in asynchrony (Cirelli et al., 2014a). ...
... Still related to the age of children, it is important to note that music programmes offered to infants and toddlers usually involve the presence of parents (e.g., Gerry et al. 2012;Nicholson et al. 2008), while programmes offered to preschoolers do not (e.g., Boucher et al. 2020;Williams and Berthelsen 2019). Interestingly, research has shown that participating in early childhood music programmes has a positive influence on how parents use music in the home, leading them to increase their musical interaction with their child (Abad and Barrett 2020;Vlismas et al. 2013;Vlismas and Bowes 1999). Furthermore, it has been suggested that interacting musically on a regular basis with a parent could support the child's socioemotional development (Trehub 2019). ...
Music is increasingly recognized as having a social role, insofar as it is linked to emotional regulation and to early interactions in infancy and the preschool years. The goal of this meta-analysis was to examine the impact of participating in an early childhood music programme on indices of socioemotional development in children under 6 years of age. The overall result showed a moderate effect size (N = 681, k = 11, d = 0.57, p < 0.001). Moderation analyses revealed that the type of assessment (observational measure, reported measure or other types of assessment) significantly influenced effect size (Q′ = 25.26, p < 0.001). No other moderation analysis was significant. Although these findings are promising, suggesting that participation in an early childhood music programme contribute to children’s socioemotional development, more rigorous studies are needed to assess the impact of participating in a music programme on socioemotional development.
... Research has demonstrated valuable benefits of singing to newborns, such as improving mother-infant interaction and reducing infant distress (Coulton et al., 2015;Nakata & Trehub, 2004). Listening to music during pregnancy is also associated with greater maternal wellbeing and reduced depressive symptoms in the first 3 months post-birth, while daily singing to babies is associated with fewer symptoms of depression and increased maternal wellbeing, self-esteem and perceived mother-infant bond (Vlismas et al., 2013). A study conducted in 2018 showed that new mothers involved in 10-week programme of singing group had a significantly faster decrease in their depressive symptoms compared with mothers that participated to play groups (Fancourt & Perkins, 2018). ...
Perinatal depression can have deleterious effects on the formation of the relationship between mother and infant: evidence shows that it threatens not only the mental, but also the physical health of the mother; the physical and psychological development of the baby; and it can have a profound impact on the care that the baby receives and on the future relationships that the baby will form. As babies learn from the outside in, through the mind of another person, they learn how to behave from the responses of their environment. In the context of perinatal depression, which often combines elevated stress levels with low emotional arousal, it can be difficult for a mother to recognise and perceive her own and her infant’s emotions, needs and desires in order to appropriately interact with their infant. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview on previous literature reviewing research on perinatal depression and its impact on the mother-infant interaction, with a particular focus on current dyadic interventions for the enhancement of their relationship. Given the prevalence of perinatal depression and the adverse effects this disorder has on women and their children, the identification of effective treatments, which include both the mother and baby, has important implications.
... Singing to newborns is practised around the world, and research has demonstrated valuable benefits such as improving mother-infant interaction and reducing infant distress. [21][22][23] Listening to music during pregnancy is also associated with greater maternal well-being and reduced symptoms of PND in the first 3 months postbirth, and, additionally, daily singing to babies is associated with fewer symptoms of PND and increased maternal wellbeing, self-esteem and perceived mother-infant bond. 24 Consequently, there is a strong theoretical background for why singing could support mothers with PND. ...
Introduction:
Postnatal depression (PND) affects approximately 13% of new mothers. Community-based activities are sought after by many mothers, especially mothers that prefer not to access pharmacological or psychological interventions. Singing has shown positive effects in maternal mood and mother-child bonding. The Scaling-Up Health-Arts Programmes: Implementation and Effectiveness Research-Postnatal Depression study will analyse the clinical and implementation effectiveness of 10-week singing sessions for PND in new mothers. This protocol paper will focus on the clinical effectiveness of this trial.
Methods and analysis:
A total of 400 mothers with PND (with a score of at least 10 on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) and their babies will be recruited for this hybrid type II randomised controlled trial. The intervention group will attend 10 weekly singing sessions held at community venues or online, facilitated by the arts organisation, Breathe Arts Health Research (Breathe). A control group will be encouraged to attend non-singing sessions in the community or online for 10 weeks. A package of assessments will be collected from participants for clinical, mechanistic and implementation outcomes, at different stages of the trial. Clinical assessments will include questionnaires and interviews for demographics, mental health and social measures, together with biological samples for measurement of stress markers; the study visits are at baseline, week 6 (mid-trial) and week 10 (end of trial), with follow ups at weeks 20 and 36. Multiple imputation will be used to deal with possible missing data and multivariable models will be fitted to assess differences between groups in the outcomes of the study.
Ethics and dissemination:
Ethical approval has been granted by the London-West London and GTAC Research Ethics Committee, REC reference: 20/PR/0813.
Trial registration number:
NCT04834622; Pre-results.
... Examining how the nature and context of social interactions affect infants' engagement in motor activity, Scola, Bourjade & Jover (2015) conlcuded that the presence of a partner (stranger or mother) can modulate motor activity of infant. Adding music and movement to interaction, Vlismas, Malloch and Burnham (2012) showed that music and movement programme increased interaction between 2-6 months old infants and their mothers. Mothers were given written instructions followed with audio-disc with music and recorded instructions of how to use rhythmical movements and gestures to accompany the activities. ...
... A focus on the children also appears as a natural next step towards a better understanding of the potential of this project, in particular given the known impact of social vulnerability on infants' language development (Hart and Risley, 2003) and attachment (Miller, 2016) and the role that music can play in potentiating both (Brandt et al., 2012;Vlismas et al., 2013). ...
The Lullaby Project is an innovative model developed to support vulnerable groups through community-based music creation. It pairs expectant and new mothers with professional musicians, to create a lullaby for their children. This paper presents an investigation of the project’s pilot implementation in the United Kingdom, bringing together musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, refugee mothers and inmate fathers from a central London prison. The research aimed to understand how the Lullaby Project was experienced, focusing on the potential areas of perceived change linked with the concept of mental health as flourishing. Participants (N=12) took part in semi-structured interviews and kept daily notes to aid recollection of the sessions in the interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was adopted as the research approach. Participants considered the project to carry significance for them in three key areas: (1) wellbeing, through a strong sense of accomplishment, meaning and connectedness, and the experience of positive emotions; (2) proactivity, promoting initiative, both musical and relational; and (3) reflectiveness, stimulating perspective-taking and positive coping mechanisms. The Lullaby Project offers an effective model towards promotion of flourishing among vulnerable groups, and the results make a strong case for its implementation.
... The importance of caregivers as musical mediators in early childhood is widely acknowledged (de Vries, 2009;Hallam, 2010). Mothers regularly report using music to scaffold routines with babies (Custodero & Johnson-Green, 2003), and there is a wealth of evidence that highlights the role of music in mother-infant bonding in the early years (de l'Etoile, 2006;Persico et al., 2017;Vlismas et al., 2013). Increasingly, some music therapists working with autistic children are advocating parental inclusion in the therapeutic process (Gottfried, 2016;Hernandez-Ruiz, 2020a;Thompson & McFerran, 2015;Williams et al., 2012). ...
Some autistic children display an intuitive capacity to reproduce and restyle the musical stimuli that they encounter in their environments. Music also offers a safe space for the development of social competencies and, across the spectrum, musical interventions are regarded as an effective way of promoting engagement with others. Yet, there is a lack of empirically researched music programs for parents and carers of children with autism. In this study, 11 families with autistic children incorporated music making into everyday life, supported by researcher-practitioners and framed by resources outlining musical activities based on the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years framework. Assessment of video data and interviews revealed that the new resources were flexible enough to be adapted to each child and they helped parents to build confidence to engage with their children musically. It was found that children had an increased interest and engagement in music as well as in joint play, which impacted positively on their musical and social development. The interpersonal music spaces created by the parents provided opportunities for unlocking expressiveness and interactive behavior, which in turn supported verbal development, emotional regulation and social interaction. These findings have implications for arts-in-health research and highlight the potentially crucial role of parents as mentors for their child’s musical development. The study further demonstrates that specialist musical training is not a requirement to develop parent–child engagement in music making at home.
... No significant difference was associated with programme duration. Some researchers have observed a significant improvement in socio-emotional development with music programmes including as few as four to seven music sessions (Standley et al., 2009;Vlismas et al., 2013). In the previously cited studies, the children were all much younger, 3-18 months old, and parents took part in the musical activities. ...
Research has shown that young children’s socio-emotional development may benefit from participating in a music programme. In this study, we explored the association between participation in a general music programme and the development of socio-emotional skills in relation to the duration of the programme. Children aged 4 and 5 (N=50), from a low socio-economic neighbourhood, participated in an 8- or 15-week music programme. Children’s social skills development and emotion comprehension were measured. Teachers reported an increase in the social interaction and independence skills scores of the younger children and a decrease in the cooperation skills scores of the older children. Additionally, the older children showed an increase in their comprehension of emotions. The duration of the programme, however, did not yield any significant effect. Results suggest that the association between participation in a music programme and the development of social-emotional skills may be influenced by the age of the children.
... 29,30 Singing to new babies is practised in cultures around the world, and research has demonstrated valuable benefits, such as improving mother-infant interaction and reducing distress in babies. [31][32][33] Listening to music during pregnancy is also associated with higher levels of well-being and reduced symptoms of postnatal depression in the first 3 months post-birth, while daily singing to babies is associated with fewer symptoms of postnatal depression and higher levels of well-being, self-esteem and perceived motherinfant bond. 10 Consequently, there is a strong theoretical background indicating that singing could support mothers with postnatal depression. ...
The Scaling-up Health-Arts Programme: Implementation and Effectiveness Research (SHAPER) project is the world's largest hybrid study on the impact of the arts on mental health embedded into a national healthcare system. This programme, funded by the Wellcome Trust, aims to study the impact and the scalability of the arts as an intervention for mental health. The programme will be delivered by a team of clinicians, research scientists, charities, artists, patients and healthcare professionals in the UK's National Health Service (NHS) and the community, spanning academia, the NHS and the charity sector. SHAPER consists of three studies – Melodies for Mums, Dance for Parkinson's, and Stroke Odysseys – which will recruit over 800 participants, deliver the interventions and draw conclusions on their clinical impact, implementation effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. We hope that this work will inspire organisations and commissioners in the NHS and around the world to expand the remit of social prescribing to include evidence-based arts interventions.
... These results were not maintained at one-year follow-up. The lack of effectiveness of IYPB as a universal intervention in the present trial is in line with a recent systematic review of the effects of universal interventions for parents with infants (71), and other trials of universal parenting interventions (72)(73)(74)(75). It also corresponds with the most recent research on the IY program where it has been stated that "children with more marked levels of conduct problems tend to benefit most from the intervention, suggesting it is more suitable for high-risk prevention or treatment, rather than universal prevention" (44). ...
Background:
The foundation of a healthy life begins in pregnancy and early adversity can have detrimental long-term consequences for affected children.
Objective:
This paper examines the effects of the Incredible Years Parents and Babies program (IYPB) at one-year follow-up when offered as a universal parenting intervention to parents with newborn infants.
Method:
We conducted a pragmatic, two-arm, parallel pilot randomized controlled trial; 112 families with newborns were randomized to IYPB intervention (n = 76) or usual care (n = 36). The IYPB program is a group intervention with eight two-hour sessions. Follow-up outcomes collected a year after the intervention ended include parental stress, depression, well-being, reflective function, sense of competence, and child cognitive and socio-emotional development.
Results:
There were no intervention effects on any of the primary or secondary parent-reported outcomes at one-year follow-up when the children were 18 months old. When examining the lowest-functioning mothers in moderator analyses, we found that mothers assigned to the IYPB group reported significantly lower scores for the interest and curiosity subscale of the parent reflective function scale than control mothers (β=-1,07 [-2.09,-0.06]).
Conclusion:
We found no long-term effects of the IYPB when offered as a universal intervention for a relatively well-functioning group of parents with infants in a setting with a high standard of usual care. The intervention was developed for more vulnerable families in settings with a low level of universal care and the program may be effective for families in those circumstances.
... To summarize, the present results suggest that rhythms are associated with interpersonal synchrony in infant-caregiver dyads, regardless of whether they are spoken or sung; but melodic rhythms seem to have an additional benefit in that they are more emotionally-salient and thus may attune both interactional partners to the affective content of their social exchanges. Indeed, this corroborates parental reports that the experience of singing to their infants increases not only parental well-being and self-esteem (Fancourt & Perkins, 2017), but also positively affects maternal perception of their emotional bond and sense of togetherness with their infants (Creighton et al., 2013;Vlismas et al., 2013). Although indirectly, these findings indicate a possible link between ID singing and the quality of early mother-infant interactions. ...
While interpersonal synchrony is regarded as a defining characteristic of early social exchanges between infants and their caregivers, the mechanisms facilitating synchronous interactions are poorly understood. The goal of the present study was to examine the relationship between maternal playful singing and interpersonal synchrony of the mother-infant dyad. Overall, 56 mothers and their 4-month-old infants were observed during natural interactions that were then micro-coded for maternal and infant social behaviours as well as maternal singing and rhyming in the context of social game routines. Results showed that 38 dyads spontaneously engaged in social game routines. In these dyads, both playful singing and rhyming were positively associated with dyadic gaze synchrony, while only playful singing was also positively correlated with affect synchrony of the dyad. These findings suggest that rhythms, in general, may have important implications for the establishment of interpersonal synchrony in infant-caregiver dyads. However, musical rhythms seem to be particularly emotionally-salient and thus attune both interactional partners to the affective content of their social exchanges.
... A recurrent theme in these studies is that of maternal singing as essential in building a bond between the mother and infant (Carolan, Barry, Gamble, Turner, & Mascareñas, 2012;Cirelli et al., 2018;Delavenne, Gratier, & Devouche, 2013;de l'Etoile, 2006;Edwards, 2011;O'Gorman, 2006;Pixley, 2015;Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013), enabling them to feel close to one another-to become emotionally attached. ...
Mothers habitually sing to their infants. Researchers in different areas of knowledge and through a variety of theoretical approaches have been more intensively investigating maternal singing since the late 1990s. The present article offers an overview of themes found in these studies about how mother–infant relationships may be mediated by maternal song, prioritizing articles that offer psychological insights into this phenomenon. These investigations assert that singing promotes intimacy between a mother and her infant, strengthening their bond and nurturing their relationship. We strive to contribute to this wealth of understanding with insights based on our research study about lived experience of mothers singing to their infants, and grounded in a humanistic perspective largely inspired by the work of Carl Rogers regarding the central role of social relationships in human development. We propose that a mother communicates genuineness and unconditional acceptance while singing, developing a musical ritual, facilitating intimacy and mutual understanding; she experiences being heard; she expresses herself, gives of herself, cultivating a healthy relationship through “hugging her child with song.”
... A mãe muda seu canto à medida que interage com e acompanha seu bebê, adaptando sua canção para que fique apropriada ao momento e ajude o bebê a se equilibrar. Sua sensibilidade e seu afeto são transmitidos por meio do som de sua voz, suas expressões faciais, mãos, movimento do corpo e toque (Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013). ...
... A mother changes her way of singing as she interacts with and accompanies her infant, adapting songs to make them appropriate for the moment and help the infant to adjust. Her sensitivity and affection are transmitted by the sound of her voice, facial expressions, hands, body movement, and touch (Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013). ...
Cantar para bebês tem sido parte da vida de mães desde os tempos antigos e em diferentes culturas. O estudo do cantar das mães para seus bebês tende a enfocar como e por que as canções são facilitadoras da comunicação mãe-bebê, identificando seus efeitos e benefícios para a mãe e para o bebê. No entanto, sabe-se pouco a respeito da experiência subjetiva das mães ao cantarem. Esta pesquisa fenomenológica pretende contribuir para esse corpo de conhecimento por meio de uma compreensão psicológica, em busca de significados, a partir da psicologia humanista. Foram realizados encontros dialógicos individuais com 13 mães primíparas, brasileiras e norte-americanas, com filhos de até 18 meses. Narrativas compreensivas baseadas nesses encontros foram redigidas e analisadas pela pesquisadora e uma narrativa síntese foi construída revelando os elementos estruturais da experiência de cantar das mães. Os elementos significativos que emergiram foram: um modo especial de se comunicarem com o filho, possibilitando a construção de um vínculo emocional, uma forma de melhor conhecer seu bebê, um modo de reconhecerem a si mesmas na condição de mães, uma maneira interessante de compartilhar valores pessoais e costumes familiares e um modo criativo de se expressarem. Todos estes significados possibilitam o desenvolvimento do potencial para crescimento pessoal das mães. Este artigo também pretende apresentar uma breve discussão dos resultados no contexto contemporâneo da ciência psicológica e sugere futuros caminhos de pesquisa.
... 17 In another study, mothers who engaged in music and movement programs with their infants reported an increased quality of attachment with their child over time. 18 After reading all of this, Cohen was convinced that a musicand rhyme-based early language program for parents of premature babies was needed. She shared this developing interest with colleagues at Port Discovery Children's Museum, who urged her to write a proposal to create a program. ...
Of the 76,510 babies born during an average week in the United States, 7,361—or about 10 percent—are born prematurely.1 Preterm babies, born before the thirty-seventh week of gestation, can be born with underdeveloped organ systems and other health problems that impact their ability to survive on their own outside of the womb.
... More specifically, there is also a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effects of community group singing on mental health (Clift & Morrison, 2011;Coulton, Clift, Skingley, & Rodriguez, 2015). Singing to new babies is practised in cultures around the world, and research has demonstrated valuable benefits such as improving mother-infant interaction and reducing distress in babies (Mualem & Klein, 2013;Nakata & Trehub, 2004;Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013). The benefits of singing for maternal mental health remain largely unknown, however. ...
Background
This article is a process evaluation of a three-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing the effects of creative interventions on symptoms of postnatal depression (PND) in new mothers.
Methods
Analyses of quantitative evaluation data from 91 participants and qualitative interviews and focus groups with 80 participants and 3 members of staff.
Results
Key assumptions of the RCT, including how the delivery of the intervention was achieved and what the intervention involved, are explored. Data suggest that the intervention was delivered as planned with a high level of fidelity. Key uncertainties surrounding the project, in particular unanticipated challenges that had to be overcome during the RCT, are also discussed and simple recommendations for improvement are made.
Conclusion
This process evaluation aims to illuminate the outcome and mechanisms data from the RCT and enable organisations or individuals to ascertain the feasibility of establishing their own creative classes for women with symptoms of PND.
... Quem cuida de um bebê logo reconhece quais sons são mais atrativos para ele: trata-se de sons melodiosos e/ou brincalhões (Edwards, 2011), o chamado canto dirigido ao bebê (Bryant & Barrett, 2007), baby talk ou motherese. É descrito como uma forma de a mãe responder ao comportamento do filho, o qual " dirige " /guia o contorno da sua canção (Friedman, Kaplan, Rosenthal & Console, 2010, Malloch & Burnham, 2013). Elas costumam repetir canções e são constantes no som que produzem para o bebê nas diferentes situações (Edwards, 2011)Stahlschmidt percebeu como os momentos de interação musical vocal eram importantes para as mães, trazendo algo a mais do que a fala. ...
This qualitative and exploratory research study was developed based on Edmund Husserl’s phenomenology and guided by principles of Humanistic psychology, specifically Carl Roger’s Person Centered Approach. It aimed to apprehend the experience of 13 mothers who gave birth to their first child during the past 18 months, about the meaning of singing to their infants. The researcher spoke to each of the participants, all with a college education, during a dialogical encounter, and immediately afterwards wrote a comprehensive narrative to register her comprehension regarding that mother’s experience, based on her own impressions. A narrative-synthesis and a creative synthesis were constructed based on the narratives to enable a phenomenological process of analysis that presupposes three phases: description, comprehension and interpretation of the experience.
... Mothers who engaged with their infants in a five-week music and movement program were more likely to increase their reported quality of attachment with their child over time, compared with mothers in control groups who either did not get an intervention or who participated in social play that did not include music (Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013). ...
... A further study evaluated the effects of music and movement on mother – infant interaction. Results showed increased mother –infant interaction and mothers' attachment to infants following the programme and demonstrated that it was the music and movement per-se that had increased mothers' perception of attachment (Vlismas, Malloch, & Burnham, 2013). Finally, a study on the use of music, singing and moving with mother – infant dyads in the context of postnatal depression examined the effects of the programme on dyadic intersubjectivity and group intersubjectivity (Van Puyvelde et al., 2014). ...
This research study explores how dance movement therapy (DMT) enhances mother–infant attachment and experience. The multidimensional effects of the transition to motherhood are considered and how this may impact upon the mother's sense of space. The intervention study carried out with 20 healthy mother–infant dyads in two countries evaluated if DMT could enhance interactive attachment. This study built upon research within developmental psychology, DMT and psychoanalytical theory. Quantitative data is collated using the PANAS schedule. Qualitative data collected mother's perception of their infants' response to the sessions, the process as a whole, and the perceived benefits of the programme. Findings demonstrated that the DMT sessions improved mothers' affect significantly. Qualitative data revealed the importance of the relational and physical space between mothers and their babies as provided by the DMT session. Comparative and contrasting results were discovered regarding aspects most valued in the session according to socio-cultural context.
This study investigates how a first-time Cypriot mother used music in caring for her infant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Limited research has been done about musical parenting during this time, highlighting the importance of this single case study. For 5 months, the mother-participant engaged in an online musical parenting program, which aimed to increase knowledge regarding the use of music and movement with infants and suggest ways for practical implications. Data included interviews, informal discussions, the participant’s digital journals and filmed videos, and researcher field notes taken during the teaching program. Thematic analysis revealed that even without prior formal or informal musical training, and in prolonged isolation with related stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mother-participant engaged extensively in musical interaction with her infant. Musical activities provided a meaningful framework for the mother to cope with the daily demands of mothering and to manage the isolation due to COVID-19. Music engagement enhanced the bond between the mother and her infant, united family members, and promoted her perceived state of well-being. The findings support previous research on the significance of musical interaction between caregivers and infants, particularly during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The first years of life are critical for language development. Numerous studies indicate that actively participating in music creates a neural processing advantage in brain regions that support language development. Nevertheless, shared social characteristics between music and language may also play a role in explaining the benefits of music engagement during infancy for language development. The causal effects of a social learning pathway explaining the relation between music and language development in infants have not been fully elucidated. In this article, we posit that music enrichment programs indirectly benefit language development through enhanced parental responsiveness, an aspect of high‐quality parent–infant interactions. We summarize research on parent–child music enrichment classes and early language development. We also provide a narrative review and conceptual model of relevant research to support how parental responsiveness may partly explain the association between participating in music enrichment programs during infancy and benefits to early language development.
A growing body of research shows that the universal capacity for music perception and production emerges early in development. Possibly building on this predisposition, caregivers around the world often communicate with infants using songs or speech entailing song-like characteristics. This suggests that music might be one of the earliest developing and most accessible forms of interpersonal communication, providing a platform for studying early communicative behavior. However, little research has examined music in truly communicative contexts. The current work aims to facilitate the development of experimental approaches that rely on dynamic and naturalistic social interactions. We first review two longstanding lines of research that examine musical interactions by focusing either on the caregiver or the infant. These include defining the acoustic and non-acoustic features that characterize infant-directed (ID) music, as well as behavioral and neurophysiological research examining infants’ processing of musical timing and pitch. Next, we review recent studies looking at early musical interactions holistically. This research focuses on how caregivers and infants interact using music to achieve co-regulation, mutual engagement, and increase affiliation and prosocial behavior. We conclude by discussing methodological, technological, and analytical advances that might empower a comprehensive study of musical communication in early childhood.
This study analyzed the effects of intervention programs aimed at mothers and fathers expecting their first child on the individual, marital, and parental domains of the transition to parenthood. We selected research articles published between 2008 and 2019 from the PsycINFO, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Data collection was carried out between November and December 2019 by two independent judges, according to the recommendations of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyzes). After applying the inclusion criteria, we classified the results of 30 articles and 6782 participants into three themes corresponding to each assessed domain. Positive effects on each domain of the transition to parenthood were obtained, mostly from interventions on couple communication, problem-solving, and co-parenting. Enhancements in the couple’s relationship improve parents’ mental health and marital satisfaction, which may promote parental emotional availability and responsiveness.
As families increase their use of mobile touch screen devices (smartphones and tablet computers), there is potential for this use to influence parent-child interactions required to form a secure attachment during infancy, and thus future child developmental outcomes. Thirty families of infants (aged 9-15 months) were interviewed to explore how parents and infants use these devices, and how device use influenced parents' thoughts, feelings and behaviours towards their infant and other family interactions. Two-thirds of infants were routinely involved in family video calls and one-third used devices for other purposes. Parent and/or child device use served to both enhance connection and increase distraction between parents and infants and between other family members. Mechanisms for these influences are discussed. The findings highlight a new opportunity for how hardware and software should be designed and used to maximise benefits and reduce detriments of device use to optimise parent-infant attachment and child development.
This study aimed to explore healthy, term neonates’ behavioural and physiological responses to music using frame-by-frame analysis of their movements (Experiment 1; N = 32, 0–3 days old) and heart rate measurements (Experiment 2; N = 66, 0–6 days old). A ‘happy’ and ‘sad’ music was first validated by independent raters for their emotional content from a large pool of children’s songs and lullabies, and the effect of the emotions in these two music pieces and a control, no-music condition was compared. The results of the frame-by-frame behavioural analysis showed that babies had emotion-specific responses across the three conditions. Happy music decreased their arousal levels, shifting from drowsiness to sleep, and resulted in longer latencies in other forms of self-regulatory behaviour, such as sucking. The decrease in arousal was accompanied by heart rate deceleration. In the sad music condition, relative ‘stillness’ was observed, and longer leg stretching latencies were measured. In both music conditions, longer latencies of fine motor finger and toe movements were found. Our findings suggest that the emotional response to music possibly emerges very early ontogenetically as part of a generic, possibly inborn, human musicality.
Families with young children with and without developmental disabilities often create a musically rich home environment. Parent-child music engagement, like singing play songs, is associated with positive outcomes for children, parents, and their relationship. However, little is known about if the home music environment differs across diagnostic groups and if parent-child music engagement relates to parent-child affective attachment across families of diagnostically diverse children. Using an online questionnaire, the current study examined the home music environment of 340 families with young children with typical and atypical development. A variety of musical activities were common in all diagnostic groups. Diagnostic groups differed in active musical engagement, potentially relating to the differing phenotypes of various developmental disabilities. Parent-child music engagement was associated with parent-child affective attachment, even when controlling for relevant variables. Promoting musical engagement at home and through parent-child therapy may be an accessible way to support parent-child relationships.
To lay the foundations for lifelong musical practices, parents need to feel confident using music as a part of their everyday parenting. Music Early Learning Programs (MELPs) can empower parents to use music by laying the foundations for family-based active music-making. Little is known about why parents attend, however, what their aspirations are for their child’s musical engagement now and in the future, or how attendance shapes the way they use music at home. This study investigated parental beliefs, aspirations, and use of music in the home by five families and identified MELP structures that support parenting. The longitudinal case study approach drew on ethnographic methods of data collection. Reasons for attending MELPs were a high value for music, belief that music supports child development, enriched family relationships, and social support. Parental hopes and aspirations from attendance included laying the foundations for lifelong engagement with music. Six MELP structures shaped the way parents used music in the home: voice leading, repertoire, models of interaction, models of attunement and emotional regulation, music use to structure behavior, and models of improvisation. Parental use of MELP experiences at home included singing, music to regulate, and music to scaffold learning.
Why do humans make music? Theories of the evolution of musicality have focused mainly on the value of music for specific adaptive contexts such as mate selection, parental care, coalition signaling, and group cohesion. Synthesizing and extending previous proposals, we argue that social bonding is an overarching function that unifies all of these theories, and that musicality enabled social bonding at larger scales than grooming and other bonding mechanisms available in ancestral primate societies. We combine cross-disciplinary evidence from archaeology, anthropology, biology, musicology, psychology, and neuroscience into a unified framework that accounts for the biological and cultural evolution of music. We argue that the evolution of musicality involves gene-culture coevolution, through which proto-musical behaviors that initially arose and spread as cultural inventions had feedback effects on biological evolution due to their impact on social bonding. We emphasize the deep links between production, perception, prediction, and social reward arising from repetition, synchronization, and harmonization of rhythms and pitches, and summarize empirical evidence for these links at the levels of brain networks, physiological mechanisms, and behaviors across cultures and across species. Finally, we address potential criticisms and make testable predictions for future research, including neurobiological bases of musicality and relationships between human music, language, animal song, and other domains. The music and social bonding (MSB) hypothesis provides the most comprehensive theory to date of the biological and cultural evolution of music.
Why do humans make music? Theories of the evolution of musicality have focused mainly on the value of music for specific adaptive contexts such as mate selection, parental care, coalition signaling, and group cohesion. Synthesizing and extending previous proposals, we argue that social bonding is an overarching function that unifies all of these theories, and that musicality enabled social bonding at larger scales than grooming and other bonding mechanisms available in ancestral primate societies. We combine cross-disciplinary evidence from archaeology, anthropology, biology, musicology, psychology, and neuroscience into a unified framework that accounts for the biological and cultural evolution of music. We argue that the evolution of music’s social bonding functions involves gene-culture coevolution, through which proto-musical behaviors that initially arose and spread as cultural inventions had feedback effects on biological evolution due to their impact on social bonding. We emphasize the deep links between production, perception, prediction, and social reward arising from repetition, synchronization, and harmonization of rhythms and pitches, and summarize empirical evidence for these links at the levels of brain networks, physiological mechanisms, and behaviors across cultures and across species. Finally, we address potential criticisms and make testable predictions for future research, including neurobiological bases of musicality and relationships between human music, language, animal song, and other domains. The music and social bonding (MSB) hypothesis provides the most comprehensive theory to date of the biological and cultural evolution of music.
Objectives
From a developmental perspective, infancy is a critical stage of life. Early childhood interventions aim to support caretakers, but the effects of universal interventions for parents with infants are unknown. The objective is to determine the effects of universal parenting interventions offered to parents with infants 0–12 months on measures of child development and parent–child relationship.
Design
A systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis. We extracted publications from 10 databases in June 2013, January 2015 and June 2016 and supplemented with grey and hand search. Risk of bias was assessed, and effect sizes were calculated.
Participants
Inclusion criteria are: (1) randomised controlled trials of structured, psychosocial interventions offered to a universal population of parents with infants 0–12 months old in western OECD countries, (2) interventions that include a minimum of 3 sessions with at least half of the sessions delivered postnatally and (3) programme outcomes reported for child development or parent–child relationship.
Results
14 papers representing 7 studies are included. There were no statistically significant effects of the intervention for the majority of the primary outcomes across the studies.
Conclusions
The findings of this review are mixed. No clear conclusions can be drawn regarding the effects of universally offered parenting interventions on child development and parent–child relationship for this age group.
Attachment refers to the quality of relationships that humans form across their life span. In music therapy, a growing body of clinical work focusing on attachment is emerging. Because participation in music therapy can promote positive and meaningful interactions over time, it creates a context for developing healthy relationships. Drawing on insights afforded from the fields of psychology and social neuroscience, the purpose of this paper is to articulate an emerging conceptual model on how music therapy interventions may target attachment across the life span. By reviewing and synthesizing current literature, the author aims to expand theoretical underpinnings that inform the work of therapists. Music-based interventions create a context-fostering attachment by: (1) supporting parent co-regulation and mutual responsiveness, (2) rebuilding capacity to form or restore relationships, (3) reducing stress and mood disturbances, (4) supporting healthy partner interactions by enhancing communication skills, and (5) providing social support and building coping skills among families and individuals who are facing challenging life circumstances. The author organizes and interprets the information to outline different layers of prevention interventions and exemplify how music-based experiences may influence attachment relationships at different life stages.
Presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of personal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of obstacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery, further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived from 4 principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. Factors influencing the cognitive processing of efficacy information arise from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and behavioral changes. (21/2 p ref)
The ubiquity of songs is at odds with the prevailing view that music has no survival value (e.g., Granit, 1977; Winner, 1982). In particular, the widespread use of songs in child care (Trehub & Schellenberg, 1995) raises questions about their form and function, historically and cross-culturally, and their special link to caregiving. In the present review of singing to infants, we pursue two rather divergent approaches: one descriptive, the other empirical. The descriptive and historical material on songs, which is drawn primarily from anthropological and ethnomusicological sources, provides a context for the limited body of empirical research on songs for infants. Indeed, the descriptive evidence seems to suggest that the practice of singing to infants and many details of song form are rooted in ancient traditions that have survived industrialization and urbanization.
The objective of this study was to compare the communicative characteristics of musical interactions with play interactions between mothers and their one-year-old infants. The characteristics were physical proximity and eye contact, mothers’ and infants’ emotional expressions, length of communication chains, synchronisation, and maternal mediation behaviours. A 10-minute musical interaction followed by a 10-minute play interaction was videotaped at each of the 93 participants’ homes. The data were analysed using Observer5 software, which combines viewing the interaction with simultaneous coding. The analysis of variance revealed that the durations of physical contact, eye contact, and positive emotions and the length of communication chains were significantly longer during the musical interactions. The frequency of mothers’ mediation and incompatible mediation behaviours was significantly higher in the play interactions. Musical interactions were found to provide more opportunities for positive emotional arousal and synchronisation, which are the basic characteristics of quality interactions and essential for future child development.
Human beings are not merely social, they are inherently cultural. Infants are born with motives in their complex brains that lead them to learn through communicating about intentions, interests, and feelings with trusted companions, and to interpret with them a common reality. A baby is weak, immature in behaviour, and dependent on parental care and external regulation of emotions and protection from stress. But the baby is also capable and interested from birth in engaging “protoconversationally” with the dynamic thoughts and enthusiams of caregivers. Long before speaking, infants imitate purposeful actions and recognise objects that others treat as meaningful, responding sympathetically to emotions that evaluate these objects. How they do this, their motives for cooperative intersubjectivity or joint consciousness in companionship, has been elucidated by detailed analysis of the purposeful regulation of expressions between parents and infants from birth to the threshold of language.The emotions of relating to share intelligent awareness of a world are additional to those self-regulatory emotions that express pleasure or pain, interest, fatigue, hunger, and so on. They are “relational” emotions, anticipating contingent rhythms and sympathy of interest from others, and collaboration in purposes. The so-called “complex” emotions, the interpersonal sense of “pride” in admired accomplishment, and “shame” in being misunderstood or disliked, are part of the innate human moral condition. Powerful innate emotions of human relating, evident in infants, and different from those that establish and regulate attachment for care and protection, bring risks of mental illness associated with failure in collaborative intersubjectivity. The principles of infant mental health define the fundamental interpersonal needs for the whole life cycle. ©2001 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
In a national (US) telephone survey of parents of four‐month‐old to six‐month‐old infants (n = 2250), 904 respondents answered the question ‘Is there anything else you want to tell me about how or why you use music with your baby?’ Qualitative analyses of responses generated descriptors, which were applied to Bornstein’s four caregiving domains to ascertain music’s role in parenting infants. Findings indicated a preponderance of Social Caregiving and a merging of Material with Nurturant caregiving, showing the use of music with young infants to be primary and basic. Study 2 examines data from a follow‐up written survey with the same participant pool. In responses to the same question from parents with infants 10–16 months old (n = 339), analyses revealed an even distribution between three domains: Social, Material, and a new merging of Nurturant with Didactic—indicating that parents were responding to children’s familiar musical behavior with teaching as well as socializing.
Using a regionally focused national survey of parents with 4–6-month-olds (N = 2, 250), we addressed associations between musical experience and the frequency and content of playing music and singing for infants. The possible mediation of a classical CD distribution to new parents in hospitals was also investigated. Five variables of experience were considered: (1) respondents' recollections of their mother or (2) father singing to them, (3) playing an instrument, (4) singing in a choir, and (5) taking music lessons. Chi-square analyses indicated that musical experience was highly associated with increased frequency of playing and singing. The content of what was played and sung was less uniformly linked, and revealed individual profiles for each mode of formal experience. Differences were found between those who did and those who did not receive the CD. Results support a systems view of the child in the context of families and society, and have implications about indirect effects of music education.
The articles included in the special series in this issue of
Developmental Psychology demonstrate that perceived self-efficacy for memory functioning is an important facet of metamemory. Self-beliefs of efficacy can enhance or impair performance through their effects on cognitive, affective, or motivational intervening processes. This commentary addresses a number of issues concerning the extension of self-efficacy theory to memory functioning. These include the following: the multidimensionality and measurement of perceived memory capabilities; the veridicality of memory self-appraisal; the efficacious exercise of personal control over memory functioning; the psychosocial processes by which people preserve a favorable sense of memory self-efficacy over the life span; and strategies for generalizing the impact of training in memory skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The utterances of 6 mothers to their 2-, 4-, and 6-mo-old infants were analyzed to determine the type of grammatical sentence, the pitch contour of the utterance, and whether the infant was gazing and smiling at the mother at the time of her utterance. Two contours were context specific for all mothers: Rising contours were used when the infant was not visually attending and the mother "wanted" eye contact; sinusoidal and bell-shaped contours were used when the infant was gazing and smiling at the mother and she wanted to maintain the infant's positive affect and gaze. Different mothers used different contours to elicit smiling when the infant was gazing but not smiling at her. Mothers also used specific pitch contours for specific types of sentences. Yes–no questions had rise contours, and "wh" questions and commands generally had fall contours. Declarative sentences had sinusoidal–bell contours rather than the fall contours. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Household chaos has been linked to poorer cognitive, behavioral, and self-regulatory outcomes in young children, but the mechanisms responsible remain largely unknown. Using a diverse sample of families in Chicago, the present study tests for the independent contributions made by five indicators of household chaos: noise, crowding, family instability, lack of routine, and television usually on. Chaos was measured at age 2; outcomes measured at age 5 tap receptive vocabulary, attention and behavior problems, and effortful control. Results show that controlling for all other measures of chaos, children with a lack of routine scored lower on receptive vocabulary and delayed gratification, while children whose television was generally on scored higher on aggression and attention problems. The provision of learning materials mediated a small part of the association between television and receptive vocabulary. Family instability, crowding, and noise did not predict any outcomes once other measures of chaos were controlled.
Vowel hyperarticulation in infant-directed speech (IDS) has been found consistently across both tone (Mandarin [1]) and non-tone (Russian, Swedish, American [2] and Australian English [3]) languages and has been posited as a possible bootstrapping mechanism for early language development in infancy [1]. Here we investigated (1) IDS in Cantonese to examine whether tones, like vowels, are hyperarticulated in a tone language and (2) the interaction of F0 measures (mean and range) in tone and intonation. Our results show there is tone hyperarticulation in Cantonese IDS compared to Cantonese adult-directed speech (ADS). Regarding the interaction of tone and intonation, F0 mean was elevated in IDS compared with ADS especially for level tones. F0 range is greater in intonation over utterances than in tones in words, and greater in ADS than IDS. These results suggest that pitch in IDS tone hyperarticulation and IDS intonation is manipulated relatively independently and tone fidelity is not affected by the exaggerated intonation of IDS.
Previous studies suggest that musical training in children can positively affect various aspects of development. However, it remains unknown as to how early in development musical experience can have an effect, the nature of any such effects, and whether different types of music experience affect development differently. We found that random assignment to 6 months of active participatory musical experience beginning at 6 months of age accelerates acquisition of culture-specific knowledge of Western tonality in comparison to a similar amount of passive exposure to music. Furthermore, infants assigned to the active musical experience showed superior development of prelinguistic communicative gestures and social behaviour compared to infants assigned to the passive musical experience. These results indicate that (1) infants can engage in meaningful musical training when appropriate pedagogical approaches are used, (2) active musical participation in infancy enhances culture-specific musical acquisition, and (3) active musical participation in infancy impacts social and communication development.
Three experiments investigated possible acoustic determinants of the infant listening preference for motherese speech found by Fernald 1985. To test the hypothesis that the intonation of motherese speech was sufficient to elicit this preference, it was necessary to eliminate lexical content and to isolate the three major acoustic correlates of intonation: (1) fundamental frequency (Fo), or pitch; (2) amplitude, correlated with loudness; and (3) duration, related to speech rhythm. Three sets of auditory reinforcers were computer-synthesized, derived from the Fo (Experiment 1), amplitude (Experiment 2), and duration (Experiment 3) characteristics of the infant- and adult-directed natural speech samples used by Fernald 1985. Thus, each of these experiments focused on particular prosodic variables in the absence of segmental variation. Twenty 4-month-old infants were tested in an operant auditory preference procedure in each experiment. Infants showed a significant preference for the Fo-patterns of motherese speech, but not for the amplitude or duration patterns of motherese.
Infants who were 6 months of age were presented with extended audiovisual episodes of their mother's infant-directed speech or singing. Cumulative visual fixation and initial fixation of the mother's image were longer for maternal singing than for maternal speech. Moreover, movement reduction, which may signal intense engagement, accompanied visual fixation more frequently for maternal singing than for maternal speech. The stereotypy and repetitiveness of maternal singing may promote moderate arousal levels, which sustain infant attention, in contrast to the greater variability of speech, which may result in cycles of heightened arousal, gaze aversion, and re-engagement. The regular pulse of music may also enhance emotional coordination between mother and infant.
In Experiment 1, 6-month-old infants looked longer in order to listen to a set of consonant intervals than to a set of dissonant intervals. In Experiment 2, infants preferred to listen to the original version of a Mozart minuet than to a version altered to contain many dissonant intervals. Thus, although infants do not yet have the musical-system-specific knowledge of scale structure that is involved in adults' emotional reactions to music, infants are similar to adults in their evaluative reactions to consonance and dissonance.
This study investigated the hypothesis that background television affects interactions between parents and very young children. Fifty-one 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old children, each accompanied by 1 parent, were observed for 1 hr of free play in a laboratory space resembling a family room. For half of the hour, an adult-directed television program played in the background on a monaural television set. During the other half hour, the television was not on. Both the quantity and quality of parent-child interaction decreased in the presence of background television. These findings suggest one way in which early, chronic exposure to television may have a negative impact on development.
Mothers were recorded singing a song of their choice in both a lullaby style and a play-song style to their 6-month-olds. Adult raters identified the play-song-style and lullaby-style versions with 100% accuracy. Play-song-style renditions were rated as being more brilliant, clipped, and rhythmic and as having more smiling and more prominent consonants. Lullaby-style renditions were characterized as being more airy, smooth, and soothing. Adults observed videotapes (without sound) of 6-month-olds listening to alternating lullaby-style and play-song-style trials and performed at above chance levels when determining which music the infants were hearing. Coding analyses revealed that infants focused their attention more toward themselves during lullaby-style trials and more toward the external world during play-song-style trials. These results suggest that singing may be used to regulate infants' states and to communicate emotional information.
When talking to babies, adults invariably use a special speech register characterized by elevated fundamental frequency (pitch), exaggerated intonation contours, and high affect ([1][1], [2][2]). It has also been found that mothers hyperarticulate vowels when addressing their infants but not when
The effectiveness of a 10-week group music therapy program for marginalized parents and their children aged 0-5 years was examined. Musical activities were used to promote positive parent-child relationships and children's behavioral, communicative and social development. Participants were 358 parents and children from families facing social disadvantage, young parents or parents of a child with a disability. Significant improvements were found for therapist-observed parent and child behaviors, and parent-reported irritable parenting, educational activities in the home, parent mental health and child communication and social play skills. This study provides evidence of the potential effectiveness of music therapy for early intervention.
The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology.
What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical behavior and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal features of music and musical behavior across cultures? In this groundbreaking book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists, and linguists come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology—the study of which will contribute greatly to our understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself.
Contributors Simha Arom, Derek Bickerton, Steven Brown, Ellen Dissanayake, Dean Falk, David W. Frayer, Walter Freeman, Thomas Geissmann, Marc D. Hauser, Michel Imberty, Harry Jerison, Drago Kunej, François-Bernard Mâche, Peter Marler, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller, Jean Molino, Bruno Nettl, Chris Nicolay, Katharine Payne, Bruce Richman, Peter J.B. Slater, Peter Todd, Sandra Trehub, Ivan Turk, Maria Ujhelyi, Nils L. Wallin, Carol Whaling
Bradford Books imprint
Communicative Musicality’ explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. The theory of communicative musicality was developed from groundbreaking studies showing how in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture. Without intending to, the exchange between a mother and her infant follow many of the rules of musical performance, including rhythm and timing. This is the first book to be devoted to this topic. In a collection of cutting-edge chapters, encompassing brain science, human evolution, psychology, acoustics and music performance, it focuses on the rhythm and sympathy of musical expression in human communication from infancy. It demonstrates how speaking and moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of communication, even the most refined and technically elaborated, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts, and therapy to help handicapped or emotionally distressed persons. A landmark in the literature, ‘Communicative Musicality’ is a valuable text for all those in the fields of developmental, educational, and music psychology, as well as those in the field of music therapy.
Communicative Musicality’ explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. The theory of communicative musicality was developed from groundbreaking studies showing how in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture. Without intending to, the exchange between a mother and her infant follow many of the rules of musical performance, including rhythm and timing. This is the first book to be devoted to this topic. In a collection of cutting-edge chapters, encompassing brain science, human evolution, psychology, acoustics and music performance, it focuses on the rhythm and sympathy of musical expression in human communication from infancy. It demonstrates how speaking and moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of communication, even the most refined and technically elaborated, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts, and therapy to help handicapped or emotionally distressed persons. A landmark in the literature, ‘Communicative Musicality’ is a valuable text for all those in the fields of developmental, educational, and music psychology, as well as those in the field of music therapy.
Using music as a model, mother/infant vocalisations are examined using computer-based acoustic analysis. Past research is summarised which demonstrates the importance of both parties in the mother-infant dyad. Methods are then introduced for analysing pulse, quality and narrative in mother/infant vocalisations. These three elements comprise “communicative musicality”: those attributes of human communication, which are particularly exploited in music, that allow co-ordinated companionship to arise. The analysis of pulse is based on spectrographs analysis, and regular timing intervals are discovered that serve to co-ordinate the mother's and infant's joint vocalisations. Quality consists of both the pitch-contour of the vocalisations, and their timbre. Pitch plots are derived using software developed for this project using a constant Q spectral transform. I examine how the infant and mother structure their joint exploration of pitch space on the small and large scale. Timbre is measured with a variety of acoustic measures – tristimulus values, sharpness, roughness and width. It is found that the mother's voice changes its quality in response to the infant's. Narrative combines pulse and quality – it allows two persons to share a sense of passing time – and the musical companionship is examined that is created between a mother and her baby as she chants a nursery rhyme. It is concluded that communicative musicality is vital for companionable parent/infant communication.
The purpose of this research was to examine the nature of the temporally patterned stimulation provided spontaneously by parents to their infants. This study provides microanalytic descriptions of the temporally patterned non-vocal behaviours used by 17 mothers during brief, videotaped interactions with their 3-month-olds. Results indicated significant effects of type of maternal behaviour and infant attention on 'tempo of rhythmic behaviours; one detailed example illustrates the dynamics of interactions within an individual dyad. It is asserted that the aspects of non-vocal communication investigated here are part of a repertoire of intuitive parental behaviours which support the infant's early integrative competence and adaptation to the social world.
Detailed analyses of adult-infant interaction among some European and North American populations have revealed that it resides on characteristics such as synchronous timing, phrasing, pitch contours and variations of dynamic intensity that are essentially musical in nature. Moreover, this musicality of infancy is the medium which enables and supports the development of early communication. Observations of practice and interviews with 15 early childhood music practitioners in England suggested that a consensual version of practice has evolved around the collective rendering of playful songs and musical activities. However, this version of practice does not offer infant-appropriate musical experiences which might foster communicative musicality. The aim of the Music One-to-one project was to apply recent theories of infant musicality to practice. It was designed in three phases. A first stage gathered information from parents and practitioners about their current practices in music at home and in early childhood settings and their views and beliefs towards music. It was considered important to take account of what parents and practitioners already think and do if the designed approaches were to be relevant, accessible and practical. A second stage, moving through cycles of plan and review, explored practical approaches which blended what we had learned of parents' current practices, beliefs and views with the theories of infant musicality. Although the groups of participating parents were small, final interviews suggested that some elements of the musical activity had influenced parenting practices in the home. Finally, Stage Three of the project actively sought to provide bespoke materials and professional development for interested parties.
In most research involving maternal infant attachment, the attachment construct has been assessed by behavioural observation. The problems inherent in this approach, including its high cost and labour-intensive nature, are briefly reviewed. It is suggested that the behavioural approach could be usefully complemented by enquiry into the mother's subjective experiences towards her infant. The development of a 19 item self-report questionnaire to assess mother-to-infant attachment is described. Using a sample of approximately 200 women assessed at 4 weeks, 4 months and 8 months postnatally, the psychometric properties of the instrument are presented. Acceptable levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability were found. The factor structure of the questionnaire revealed four factors which accounted for approximately 40% of the variance in attachment scores: pleasure in proximity, acceptance, tolerance, and competence as parent. Evidence supporting the construct validity of the questionnaire is presented. Use of the questionnaire approach enables the use of much larger samples of mother-infant dyads, and thus provides a potential avenue for future exploration of the determinants of attachment (or detachment). The criterion validity of the instrument has yet to be established by comparison with behavioural measures.
American, Russian, and Swedish mothers produce acoustically more extreme point vowels (/i/, /u/, and /a/) when speaking to their infants than when speaking to another adult [Kuhl et al., Science 277, 684–686]. This study examines the three point vowels in Japanese mothers’ speech, and compares the acoustic structure of infant‐directed (ID) and adult‐directed (AD) tokens. Three target words containing /i/, /u/, and /a/ (bi:zu, batto, bu:tsu = beads, bat, boots) were recorded while mothers conversed with another native‐speaking adult, and with their infants, aged either 51/2 or 81/2 months. F1, F2, and F0 were measured at vowel onset, center, and offset. Acoustic, results will be compared for AD and ID speech, and expansion of the vowel space in Japanese mothers’ speech will be examined. [Work supported by NIH HD35465‐01S1.]
Music Together is a community based music therapy program for "well" families with preschool aged children. The program reflects a developing perspective that music therapy can be a preventative intervention. Music Together is available to all families within the community, not just those with a diagnosis, disability, or identified as "at risk". This article describes the challenges facing Australian families, the need for social support, and the application of traditional early intervention music therapy techniques to support "well" families. Results of a program evaluation are presented to substantiate this application of music therapy.
The study is concerned with how first-time mothers can be encouraged to use music and movement with their infants. Thirty-nine first-time mothers reported their use of music and movement with their infant before and after a 5-week period during which 17 of the mother-infant pairs participated in a one-hour-a-week music and movement program. The program involved relaxation methods, kinesics, singing, visual contact and tactile stimulation. Results indicate that the program was successful in extending mothers' relaxation to music and their use of rhythmical movement with their infants but not their use of song and massage, beyond the levels reported by control group mothers. Mothers in the program reported use of music and movement to stimulate and soothe infants and social benefits of group participation for themselves and their infants.
discuss the interrelations between integrative development and social interactions in the infant, in particular the parental contribution to integrative development
interactional systems / infant's competence in social interactions / parents' competence in social interactions
methodological problems / recording / procedural arrangements and data evaluation
parental repertoire related to the infant's general state / parental repertoire related to visual contact with infants / parental repertoire related to elementary communicative skills
relation to integrative processes / adequacy of stimulation in vocal interchanges / significance for the main integrative processes (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three experiments investigated the effect of touch as a component of mother–infant interaction in the still-face (SF) paradigm and examined the impact of adult touching on infant affect and attention. In Exp 1, amount of maternal touch during the normal periods of the SF procedure was greater than 65% for 16 3-, 19 6-, and 15 9-mo-olds. In Exps 2 (cross-sectional) and 3 (longitudinal), involving 21 3–9 mo old children, Ss who received touch while their mothers were still-faced smiled more, grimaced less, and were more content relative to Ss receiving the standard SF, no-touch procedure. Adult touch reduced the SF effect by eliciting positive affect and directing attention toward the mothers' hands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
At birth mother and infant are in a common state of kinesthesia, a bond that results from the motion tracking between mother and child throughout the pregnancy. They feel each other's motion by means of touch through the uterine wall. If the sensory information they use to define their relationship is disrupted by physical separation after birth, before other sensory modes of relating are established, the relationship may suffer. Parent–infant bonding may thus be enhanced or repaired through learning movement following skills. Kinesthetic bonding is enhanced when parents become skilled at matching their movements to those of the baby by using space, timing, and effort. Bonding also benefits in an environment where parent–infant interaction is organized to compensate for body-size differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examines relationships between organizing processes of affective communication in infancy and the development of symbolic competence. Thirty six mother—infant dyads were observed at 3 and 9 months, and 32 dyads were reassessed at 24 months. Mother's and infant affective states during face-to-face play at 3 and 9 months were coded in .25-second frames. The underlying structure of infant affect and the time-lag synchrony between mother and infant affective states were assessed with time-series analyses. In addition, interactions at 3 and 9 months were assessed for the global level of infant positive affect and maternal affect attunement. At 2 years, three dimensions of symbolic competence were evaluated: symbolic play, verbal IQ, and the child's use of internal states words. Infant affect regulation at 3 months, defined by the existence of a non-random, stochastic-cyclic organization of affective states, predicted all three domains of symbolic competence at 2 years. Maternal synchrony and attunement each had an independent contribution to the prediction of symbolic play and internal state talk. The microanalytic and global indices of affect each added meaningfully to the prediction of symbolic functioning. The organization of behavioral sequences into coherent affective configurations is discussed as a possible precursor to the general capacity to develop symbols. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health
This study investigated pitch and communicative intent in mothers' infant-directed speech spoken to their infants at birth, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Audio recordings of mothers (6 with female, and 6 with male infants) talking to another adult and to their infant at 5 ages were low-pass filtered and rated by 60 adults on 5 scales (Positive or Negative Affect, Express Affection, Encourage Attention, Comfort or Soothe, and Direct Behavior). Mean fundamental frequency (F0) and pitch range of utterances were also measured. Utterances associated with positive affect tend to peak at 6 and 12 months, whereas more directive utterances peaked at 9 months. Mean F0 followed the age trend for affective utterances, and pitch range followed the trend for directive utterances. The results suggest mother speech patterns reflect, complement, and perhaps facilitate infant development.
3 studies were designed to investigate infant responses to tactile stimulation during brief adult-infant interaction using a modified still-face (SF) procedure. When adults pose a neutral SF expression, infants decrease gazing and smiling at the adults, and some increase grimacing, relative to normal interaction periods. This SF effect was substantially reduced in Study 1 when mothers or strangers continued to touch infants during the SF period. In Studies 2 and 3, tactile versus visual and active versus passive aspects of adult touch were isolated during different SF periods. Visible, active adult hands unaccompanied by touch elicited infant attention, but not smiling, during the SF period. By contrast, active, not passive, adult touch substantially reduced the SF effect, even when the adult's hands were invisible. In the latter condition, infants continued to gaze and smile at the adult's SF. Thus, adult facial expressions are not the only modulator of infant affect and attention during social exchanges; adult touch appears to play an active role.
The aim of this study was to investigate the prosodic characteristics of infant-directed speech (IDS) to boys and girls in a tonal (Thai) and non-tonal (Australian English) language. Speech was collected from mothers speaking to infants at birth, and 3, 6, 9, and 12 months, and also to another adult. Mean-F0, pitch range, and utterance slope-F0 were extracted, and the integrity of the tonal information in Thai investigated. The age trends across the two languages differed for each of these measures but Australian English IDS was generally more exaggerated than Thai IDS. With respect to sex differences, Australian English mothers used higher mean-F0, pitch range, and more rising utterances for girls than boys, but Thai mothers used more subdued mean-F0 and more falling utterances for girls than boys. Despite variations in pitch modifications by Thai and Australian English mothers, overall IDS is more exaggerated than adult-directed speech (ADS) in both languages. Furthermore, tonal information in Thai was only slightly less identifiable in Thai IDS than Thai ADS. The universal features and language-specific differences in IDS are discussed in terms of facilitating infant socialization at younger ages, and language acquisition later in infancy.
Abstract The quality of speech directed towards infants may play an important role in infants’ language development. However, few studies have examined the link between the two. We examined the correlation between maternal speech clarity and infant speech perception performance in two groups of Mandarin-speaking mother–infant pairs. Maternal speech clarity was assessed using the degree of expansion of the vowel space, a measure previously shown to reflect the intelligibility of words and sentences. Speech discrimination in the infants (6–8 and 10–12-month-olds) was measured using a head-turn task. The results show that mothers’ vowel space area is significantly correlated with infants’ speech discrimination performance. Socioeconomic data from both parents show that the result cannot be attributed to parental socioeconomic factors. This study is correlational and therefore a causal relationship cannot be firmly established. However, the results are consistent with the view that maternal speech clarity directly affects infants’ early language learning.
With this commentary, I raise two issues relevant to the theoretical framework from a developmental perspective. First, the infants' emotional responses are induced by the music as well as by the multimodal information they perceive in interaction with their mothers, and these responses change with time. Second, contrary to what is suggested in the target article, musical expectancy is already experienced by young infants.
The present article presents an integrative theoretical framework to explain and to predict psychological changes achieved by different modes of treatment. This theory states that psychological procedures, whatever their form, alter the level and strength of self-efficacy. It is hypothesized that expectations of per- sonal efficacy determine whether coping behavior will be initiated, how much effort will be expended, and how long it will be sustained in the face of ob- stacles and aversive experiences. Persistence in activities that are subjectively threatening but in fact relatively safe produces, through experiences of mastery, further enhancement of self-efficacy and corresponding reductions in defensive behavior. In the proposed model, expectations of personal efficacy are derived from four principal sources of information: performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. The more de- pendable the experiential sources, the greater are the changes in perceived self- efficacy. A number of factors are identified as influencing the cognitive processing of efficacy information arising from enactive, vicarious, exhortative, and emotive sources. The differential power of diverse therapeutic procedures is analyzed in terms of the postulated cognitive mechanism of operation. Findings are reported from microanalyses of enactive, vicarious, and emotive modes of treatment that support the hypothesized relationship between perceived self-efficacy and be- havioral changes. Possible directions for further research are discussed.
This study explores the power of intonation to convey meaningful information about the communicative intent of the speaker in speech addressed to preverbal infants and in speech addressed to adults. Natural samples of infant- and adult-directed speech were recorded from 5 mothers of 12-month-old infants, in 5 standardized interactional contexts: Attention-bid, Approval, Prohibition, Comfort, and Game/Telephone. 25 infant-directed and 25 adult-directed vocalizations were electronically filtered to eliminate linguistic content. The content-filtered speech stimuli were presented to 80 adult subjects: 40 experienced parents and 40 students inexperienced with infants. The subjects' task was to identify the communicative intent of the speaker using only prosodic information, given a 5-alternative forced choice. Listeners were able to use intonation to identify the speaker's intent with significantly higher accuracy in infant-directed speech than in adult-directed speech. These findings suggest that the prosodic patterns of speech to infants are more informative than those of adult-adult speech, and may provide the infant with reliable cues to the communicative intent of the speaker. The interpretation of these results proposed here is that the relation of prosodic form to communicative function is made uniquely salient in the melodies of mothers' speech, and that these characteristic prosodic patterns are potentially meaningful to the preverbal infant.
The development of a 10-item self-report scale (EPDS) to screen for Postnatal Depression in the community is described. After extensive pilot interviews a validation study was carried out on 84 mothers using the Research Diagnostic Criteria for depressive illness obtained from Goldberg's Standardised Psychiatric Interview. The EPDS was found to have satisfactory sensitivity and specificity, and was also sensitive to change in the severity of depression over time. The scale can be completed in about 5 minutes and has a simple method of scoring. The use of the EPDS in the secondary prevention of Postnatal Depression is discussed.
The speech of 6 mothers to their healthy infants was examined longitudinally during the neonatal period and at 4, 12, and 24 months in a semi-naturalistic setting. Features of speech analysed were: contour of fundamental frequency, repetitiveness, timing (durations of vocalizations and pauses), tempo and MLU. The neonatal period was characterized by elongated pauses. During the 4-month period the extent of pitch contouring and repetitiveness was greater than at earlier or later ages. By 24 months, the duration of vocalizations and length of MLU became markedly greater. The period of intense face-to-face interaction around the fourth month proved to involve more changes in certain prosodic features. Some of the possible functions of these changes during this phase are discussed.
In the early months of life, infants acquire information about the phonetic properties of their native language simply by listening to adults speak. The acoustic properties of phonetic units in language input to young infants in the United States, Russia, and Sweden were examined. In all three countries, mothers addressing their infants produced acoustically more extreme vowels than they did when addressing adults, resulting in a "stretching" of vowel space. The findings show that language input to infants provides exceptionally well-specified information about the linguistic units that form the building blocks for words.
Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. Retrieved from www Parenting infants What's new pussycat? On talking to babies and animals Observational scales for infants and mothers during feeding and play
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Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy. The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman. Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2004). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. Retrieved from www. praat.org Bornstein, M.H. (2002). Parenting infants. In M.H. Bornstein (Ed.), Handbook of parenting, vol 1: Children and parenting (2nd ed., pp. 3 –39). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Burnham, D., Kitamura, C., & Vollmer-Conna, U. (2002). What's new pussycat? On talking to babies and animals. Science, 296, 1435. Chatoor, I., Getson, P., & Himmelberg, P. (1985). Observational scales for infants and mothers during feeding and play. Abstract in Proceedings for Papers and New Research Posters, American Academy for Child Psychiatry. 32nd Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX.
Meaningful melodies in mothers' speech
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Fernald, A. (1992). Meaningful melodies in mothers' speech. In H. Papouš, U. Jurgens, & M. Papouš (Eds.), Nonverbal communication. Comparative and developmental approaches (pp. 262– 282). Paris: Cambridge University Press.