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Understanding Twins
How Babies Tell Us They're Musical Before They Can Speak
Early musical milestones captured on video
Posted December 31, 2014
Infants typically say their first words at around one year. They begin to speak in simple two-word and three-word utterances ("See car" "No bath" "Pat nice kitty") as they approach two years. However, long before they can speak in full sentences, babies express their musicality in many ways.
For instance: By around 6-7 months, when most infants start to sit up, they begin to respond to rhythmic music – by nodding or shaking their heads, and moving their torsos. Here’s a great example of 10 month-old Diogo bouncing to a Beatles song. Though not yet in time with the music, his movements reflect the rhythmic character of the song ... [ click here if video does not run ]
As infants begin to stand up and then walk (10-12 months), they often begin to bend their knees to rhythmic music or make stepping motions with alternating feet. And as they approach two years, their refined sense of balance and mobility frees them to tiptoe, run, twist, and spin to spirited music. This is charmingly illustrated by the girls (the same “dancing twins” as in a previous post) seen here at 19 months:
However, the movements are not yet really in synchrony with the beat of the music. Although a recent 2014 study by Fujii et al. showed that a portion of 3- and 4- month old infants demonstrate “sporadic synchronization” (brief moments of limb movements matching the beat) - truly moving in synchrony to music is rarely seen before age 4 years. It is the spirit of the music that these dancing twins so joyfully embody in three viral videos (shown and discussed here) that have captivated more than 20 million people.
Infants also enjoy using their new skills in movement and action to explore sounds - by hitting, scraping, and shaking objects around them. Keys, cups, spoons, pots and pans make up their first orchestras. This is how they build a storehouse of knowledge about the physical properties of objects (Piaget) - and leads naturally to play with musical toys.
Researchers have found that in their free play, young children are quite systematic in the way they explore the sounds you can make with an object or instrument (see Moorhead & Pond; Swanwick & Tillman). They often first explore timbre (the different qualities of sound); then loud-soft; followed by tempo (speed) and repetitive rhythmic patterns.
When encountering xylophones for the first time, this systematic kind of exploration is also seen in the different actions they perform. They typically begin with vertical strikes of the mallet, followed by scrubbing the mallets over the keys in zig-zagging motion, and finally making circular motions (Young, 2003). Infant and children's actions often seem chaotic to the casual onlooker, but closer observation reveals their explorations to be surprisingly orderly.
Another way infants express their musical sensitivity is in the way they listen to music (especially songs sung to them) with rapt attention. I discussed this remarkable example of the "Emotional Baby" video in one of my previous posts found here:
And finally ... In closing --
here's a musical offering from an infant who can already speak in short sentences ...
This is 2-year-old Rocco's rendition of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from Disney's Frozen. Infants begin to coo and babble to music in the first year, and by age 2 to 3 years they can sing fragments of songs they've heard. Researchers have found that they imitate words first, then rhythm, and then the general shape of the melody.
And the complete sentence Rocco says at the end of the clip? It reflects other milestones that will also be important for becoming a musician: a sense of initiative and agency...
"Mom, turn off the camera."
- © 2014 Siu-Lan Tan, first author of Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance and primary editor of The Psychology of Music in Multimedia. My blog on Psychology Today is here. A significantly different version of this article appeared here for Psychology Press.
Sources
Chapter 9 of Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance. Psychology Press: London.
Fujii, S., et al. (2014). Precursors of dancing and singing to music in three- to four-month-old infants. PLoS ONE 9(5): e97680.
Young, S. (2003). Time-space structuring in spontaneous play on percussion instruments. British Journal of Music Education, 20, 45-59.
Images & videos
Teaser image: Free vector image at http://pixabay.com/en/toddlers-babies-children-303904/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTdrYfx-yX4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe17MFrdb6g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mAe-n_q-Ko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIsCs9_-LP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jgu3skb4w4&feature=youtu.be
