Music can help babies to build bonds

Toronto, June 25 (IANS) Music can influence your babies in more ways that you thought! Researchers have found that when you sing, clap, bounce or dance in time to music with babies, these shared experiences of synchronous movement help form social bonds.

Not just adults, moving in time with others even affects the social behaviour of babies who have barely learned to walk, a study said.

"Movement is a fundamental part of music that affects social behaviour from a very young age," said Laura Cirelli from McMaster University in Canada.

The researchers showed that 14-month-old babies were much more likely to help another person after the experience of bouncing up and down in time to music with that person.

The researchers tested 68 babies in all, to see if bouncing to music with another person makes a baby more likely to assist that person by handing back "accidentally" dropped objects.

It is a significant finding because it shows that moving together to music with others encourages the development of altruistic helping behavior among those in a social group, Cirelli added.

The study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Developmental Science.