Happy tunes good for kids
HAMBURG, Germany: Not only does it soothe the savage beast, but music also makes unruly children calmer while at the same time honing their facilities for cognitive skills and physical coordination, according to a leading expert.
A mother's soft lullaby, granddad's whistling or granny's humming in the kitchen or the dulcet tones of father singing in the shower - all of these seemingly innocuous musical activities serve to help an infant not only in acquiring linguistic skills, but also in learning how human beings interact on a social level.
"Experiments have shown that unborn babies in the womb appear to relax in response to certain music and also that they seem to recognize this music after birth," says Professor Michael Schulte-Markwort, head of child psychology at Hamburg's University Hospital in Germany.
