Singing to infants matters: Early singing interactions affect musical preferences and facilitate vocabulary building.

Fabia Franco,Chiara Suttora,Mirco Fasolo,Iryna Kozar,Maria Spinelli

doi:10.1017/s0305000921000167

Abstract

This research revealed that the frequency of reported parent-infant singing interactions predicted 6-month-old infants' performance in laboratory music experiments and mediated their language development in the second year. At 6 months, infants (n = 36) were tested using a preferential listening procedure assessing their sustained attention to instrumental and sung versions of the same novel tunes whilst the parents completed an ad-hoc questionnaire assessing home musical interactions with their infants. Language development was assessed with a follow-up when the infants were 14-month-old (n = 26). The main results showed that 6-month-olds preferred listening to sung rather than instrumental melodies, and that self-reported high levels of parental singing with their infants [i] were associated with less pronounced preference for the sung over the instrumental version of the tunes at 6 months, and [ii] predicted significant advantages on the language outcomes in the second year. The results are interpreted in relation to conceptions of developmental plasticity.

Highlights

The present study aimed to investigate whether 6-month-old infants displayed preferential attention to vocal or instrumental versions of the same novel, ecologically valid tunes, and whether this preference was affected by their home experience with active or passive musical engagements
The present study found that when keeping music structural properties constant, 6-monthold infants remained continuously engaged for longer with vocal than instrumental versions of ‘happy’ music tracks
Our results are compatible with both infant studies that highlighted a preference for ID-song over ID-speech, and Ilari and Sundara’s (2009) study, which revealed a preference for song without rather than with instrumental accompaniment

Summary

Introduction

The present study aimed to investigate whether 6-month-old infants displayed preferential attention to vocal or instrumental versions of the same novel, ecologically valid tunes, and whether this preference was affected by their home experience with active (e.g., parent singing to baby) or passive (exposure to background music) musical engagements. A follow-up at 14 months was planned to test whether early language development was best predicted by the infant attentional measures or informal home musical activities reported at 6 months. While characteristics of infant-directed (ID- ) speech have been extensively investigated, research on the relationship of IDsinging with language development is only at its dawn, an association between ID-speech and 'musicality' was previously suggested by Papoušek and colleagues (Papoušek et al, 1991; Papoušek, 1994; see Malloch &Trevarthen, 2009). Whilst the evidence is robust in both behavioural and neural measures concerning the preschool and school years (amongst others, François et al, 2012; François & Schon, 2014; Fujioka et al, 2006; Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010; Politimou et al, 2019), research concerning infancy is still limited

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