Can music benefit your toddler more than reading?

Music has become a natural part of a toddler’s development and growth, it can kickstart learning and has proven to offer lifelong benefits. Music boosts all areas of a child’s development and skills, such as cognitive, social and emotional, motor, language, and overall literacy. Exposing your little one to music early on helps him learn the sounds and meaning of words. In summary, music helps the mind and body work together as a team.

Learning that music is important for your baby’s development does not mean you should go and spend all your money on a Baby Einstein or Baby-Genius music collection. It does not mean either that you should enroll your 3-year-old in violin lessons. Unlocking a child’s intelligence and happiness may indeed lie partly in music – but it is as easy as making up songs with your toddler!

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Ready for your baby’s first trip to the beach?

We know that the idea of taking your baby to the beach for the first time can be exciting as well as intimidating.

A baby’s first time at the beach is a complete experience. Being well prepared will make it an unforgettable time.

In this article, you will find tips and tricks that will help you prepare for your trip, as well as what to expect of it.

Sand is good- but not too much

Sand can be a positive experience for you baby. It will introduce new textures and stimulate your baby’s sense of touch, but beware, sand can get in your baby’s eyes and mouth and even irritate her skin. To prevent this, make sure you take a large towel or blanket and place it on the sand. Let your baby stay on the center of it with some toys ir snacks, this way, she will be away from the edge and less exposed to sand.

If you let her play on the sand, keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t eat or rub the sand on her face. If sand goes in her mouth, rinse carefully with water and use your fingers to try to get out as much as possible. If sand gets in your baby’s eyes, rinse with water, but never rub or let her rub them since this may cause more harm.

Supervise

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Babies learn language in the womb!

Research has discovered even more evidence on the process of language learning in babies. There is more going on during the prenatal stage than previously suggested. A study looked at babies who were adopted right after birth and who grew up hearing a different language than what they heard their moms speak in the womb. Researchers can see how what babies hear before and after birth affects the way they perceive sounds. So what is the birth of a language?

“Researchers have known, for some time now, that newborns prefer listening to voices speaking the same language they heard in the womb”, says Anne Cutler, a psychologist and professor at the Marcs Insitute. Newborns can actually recognize the same voice they heard during the last trimester in the womb, especially their mother’s sounds, and prefer listening to similar voices than hearing the voice of a stranger. They also have a preference for languages with similar rhythms than languages with different ones. Newborns indicated this preference by sucking longer on rigged pacifiers that enabled them to hear one speakers voice versus another or a language versus another.

Dr. Cutler states that researches used to think that babies didn’t actually learn any language units — the smallest units of sounds that make up words and languages until the six months of life. However, new research includes recent studies that challenge this notion. Continue reading →