The Benefits of Singing to Your Children

Reviewed and approved by the psychologist María Alejandra Castro Arbeláez.

Written by Andria Navarro Taño (Agetna)

Last update: 27 December, 2022

The benefits of singing to your baby are countless. Singing helps strengthen the loving bond you have with your child.

Through song, babies perceive their mother’s affection and this benefits the emotional tie between mother and child.

A person who sings to a baby becomes a figure of attachment and communicates a sense of security.

They extend a firm and supportive hand that helps the child advance in his cognitive, emotional and physical development, as well as the development of his senses.

The healthy way to sing to your baby

Lullabies are a common part of a baby’s bedtime routine. As if instinctively, mothers sing to their babies when it’s time for them to go to sleep. 

It may be a classic lullaby, sometimes made up on the spot, or just a peaceful tune that mom hums as her little one dozes off.

For many children, hearing a lullaby signals to them that it’s time to close their eyes. Their bodies need to rest, and their brains need to process all they’ve learned that day.

However, l ullabies should never be a pretext for falling asleep, nor should they be in the background as your baby sleeps.

Some children become accustomed to lullabies to such a point that they can’t get to sleep without one. If they wake up in the middle of the night, they can only fall back to sleep if someone sings to them.

In this case, it’s better for these mothers to try to consider singing to their babies only as a preamble to sleeping.

However, once their baby starts to doze off, the singing should cease, rather than continue until the baby falls asleep completely.

Singing lullabies: The meaning this has for babies

Lullabies have a sort of soothing effect. They’re naturally calming in the face of any crying bout, tantrum or fear your child may have. 

If your baby has a certain need, illness or ailment, a good lullaby can be just the right medicine.

These soothing songs communicate safety. When a child hears a lullaby, he knows he’s not alone. What’s more, the child feels protected. He trusts the person who is with him, caring for him.

The role of lullabies in child development

Children learn the melodies and lyrics of lullabies and nursery rhymes from a very young age. Many times, this gives them the capacity to anticipate the part of the song that comes next.

Therefore, lullabies introduce children to the concept of routine and help them form a sense of security and consistency. This in turn allows them to feel they can trust what happens around them.

When babies observe and hear their mothers singing, they begin to gather information about the meaning of articulated language. They watch the movements that the mouth makes in order to speak.

Babies learn about the sounds of vowels and consonants and how they come together to transmit ideas. The repetition of these tunes helps infants record all the knowledge they acquire as they hear them over and over again.

The synapse (neuronal connections) that are established during this process are what teach them to emit their first sounds. They gurgle, they babble, and eventually they learn to speak.

Lullabies also help promote children’s psychomotor development and body coordination. 

As you can see, singing to your child not only has immediate effects, but long-term effects as well.

Don’t miss this opportunity to help your child’s development in such a simple way!