Babies Have Rhythm!

Today's did you know

Did you know that by 7-9 months old infants can detect differences between duple and triple rhythms?  They develop a sense of rhythm from adults speaking to them, and moving with them when they are experiencing music.  This is "accelerated by experience!"  The more you dance, move, sing, play instruments, and speak to your baby the quicker they develop their sense of rhythm.

From Infants Perception of Rhythmic Patterns
by TONYA R. BERGESON AND SANDRA E. TREHUB
https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/infant-child-centre/sites/files/infant-child-centre/public/shared/sandra-trehub/001.pdf

"Infants’ sense of rhythm may be linked to their body movements. Indeed, stereotypical rhythms of head, arm, chest, and leg movements have been observed in infancy (Pouthas, 1996; Thelen, 1981), and early bipedal kicking and sucking have binary elements (e.g., suction and relaxation). Moreover, infants gradually integrate endogenous and exogenous rhythms (Pouthas, 1996). When presented with a “moving room,” for example, infants adjust their rate of swaying to match the frequency of room movements (Bertenthal, Rose, & Bai, 1997). It is notable that caregivers typically move while singing to their infants, which is consistent with the notion of intrinsic connections between rhythm and movement (Cross, 2001; Merker, 2000). Much of the motion that caregivers provide for infants can be considered binary, as in rocking (e.g., back and forth) or bouncing (e.g., up and down). Recent evidence indicates that 7-month-old infants’ interpretation of an ambiguous drum rhythm is affected by the pattern of bouncing (on every second or third beat) that they experienced while listening (Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005). Such connections between rhythmic sound and motion go well beyond caregiver-infant interactions, with music being inseparable from movement in many cultures (Fraisse, 1982; Merker, 2000). Infants are also sensitive to the rhythmic properties of speech. For example, French newborns differentiate English utterances, which are stress-timed, from Japanese utterances, which are timed at the subsyllabic level, or mora (Nazzi, Bertoncini, & Mehler, 1998)."

"the formation of melodic and temporal expectations may follow a similar developmental timetable, which is accelerated by experience, enculturation, and formal music training."