Visual arts, music, and drama are important elements of education for all ages, but in the early childhood years, children are especially eager to engage in these activities and find new methods of self-expression. Exposure to the arts is valuable for children’s development in its own right, as well as beneficial to their language, math, and fine motor skills.

We know that babies learn language from being spoken and sung to, but new research states that young babies learn more from the rhythm and the way we speak than the individual sounds we’re making.

Why reading nursery rhymes and singing to babies may help them to learn language | University of Cambridge

This is just more reason to keep singing and reading to even the youngest babies throughout the day!

Remember, singing to the baby in front of you is much more powerful than playing recorded music.

“High cognitive scores during infant-directed singing suggested that engagement through song is just as effective as book reading or toy play in maintaining infant attention, and far more effective than listening to recorded music,” said [researcher Shannon] de l’Etoile. Mothers and infants connect through song | ScienceDaily