How Baby Musical Toys Help Our Children

As a parent of a burgeoning virtuoso, I want to do everything in my power to ensure my son Aidan gets every advantage he can in his musical education. Ok, maybe 21 month old Aidan is below virtuoso status NOW, but one day I tell ya....he'll move on from his baby musical toys to Madison Square Garden.

The purpose of this article is to inform parents about how vital an early introduction to music is to the development of their child's physical AND mental abilities. Until I had a son of my own, I was not aware of all the research supporting the idea that music can benefit children at such a young age. I knew of the general idea that having infants listening toMozart might be a good idea, but if you had asked me I would have said it is New Age mumbo jumbo. As I started looking into this topic further, I found that this has been analyzed for a long time and there exists fairly conclusive results.

1. Children who play with baby musical toys are more prone to developing language skills quicker than those who do not. This may seem obvious because music usually involves singing and dinging involves language, but I was surprised to learn that there is more to it than that. It turns out, that when a baby is playing or listening to music, they engage the parts of their brain in the left hemisphere that is also used for language. So the child does not need to be singing to necessarily get the benefits from music that help in acquiring language skills. Just by participating they form the neural connections that will be used later for speech.

2. Research all shows that music acts as a social tool for children as well, building empathy and allowing for increased understanding of others emotions. When a person listens to music they feel an emotion directly related to the type of music. For example, someone listening to heavy metal is typically not calm, nor is someone listening to Yanni enraged. There is an objectivity to music that allows people to share common emotions while listening. As children begin to understand their world and the people they share it with they need to learn that when they hear a tune that makes them happy, that happiness is the same happiness that another person feels when they hear that same tune. This builds empathy because the child acknowledges that other people feel just as bad when they are yelled at for example, as he does.

With these skills a child can play with baby musical toys not only as some "shiny object" that distracts them, but as a communication tool. They can start translating the way they feel into sounds they know other will be able to interpret.

These are only a few of the tremendous benefits that sharing musical toys with your babies can provide.