Singing keeps infants calm longer than baby-talk

Singing keeps infants calm longer than baby-talk
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For ages lullabies have been known to keep infants quiet and lull them into nodding off. Now research has backed up tradition by finding out that playing a song or singing nursery rhymes can keep babies composed for longer than talking to them.

Toronto: For ages lullabies have been known to keep infants quiet and lull them into nodding off. Now research has backed up tradition by finding out that playing a song or singing nursery rhymes can keep babies composed for longer than talking to them.

The infants in the study remained calm twice as long when listening to a song, which they did not even know, as they did when listening to speech. The study involved thirty healthy infants aged between six and nine months.

The researchers took a variety of measures to ensure the children's reaction to the music was not influenced by other factors, such as sensitivity to their mother's voice.

The researchers played the recordings until the infants displayed the "cry face" - lowered brows, lip corners pulled to the side, mouth opening and raised cheeks. This is infants' most common facial expression of distress.

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