Which is better, put music on the baby or talk to him? Well it depends on what for and at what time, but according to a recent study, at 3 months of age words influence cognitive performance more strongly than other sounds, including music.
In the study, babies who heard words were better able to form categories, which was not the case with those who heard tone sequences.
The research is done by psychologists from the Weinberg University of Arts and Sciences, and will appear in the April issue of the "Child Development" magazine.
Participants included 46 newborns 2 to 4 months old. Half of the children within each age group were randomly assigned to the word group and the other babies were from the tonality group.
Babies were shown a series of pictures of fish that were associated with different words or sounds during the same time.
Then, they were shown a picture of a fish and a dinosaur face, and they measured the time they were looking at each image.
Babies who formed a category, recognizing the species "fish", looked at one image longer than the other, and these babies were the ones who had heard words instead of musical tones.
It is known that human language generates in young children an attention to surrounding objects that promotes categorization. The researchers proposed that this general attention could be more refined, although that is achieved with more age when children master language better.
I do not believe that this study changes my perception about the benefits of music for babies, nor of speaking to them, of course. Talking to the baby is a way, not only to communicate with him, which we can do in many different ways, but to calm him down, strengthen our bond and teach him to know the world around him.
I think music carries other benefits that stimulate the emotional side of babies and also cognitive, although not in the specific case (at least three months) of categorization of objects, something that comes in the normal development of babies sooner or later, with or without music.
There is also a very simple way to combine the benefits of these two modes of communication: sing to the baby.
