Take that, Baby Einstein

[velvetpage]

There's no evidence that playing Mozart to a newborn makes them smarter.

I play classical music around my house because i like it. I sing songs and play games with my children because we all enjoy it. It's the interaction, the use of high-level linguistic and cognitive skills, and the physical activity, that develop their brains. The best way to encourage a child's intellectual development is to play with them, talk to them, sing to them, and engage them in activities that you both enjoy. If you're doing that, it won't matter if the music is Mozart or Metallica - it will still benefit them.

Thanks sassy_fae for the link.

Comments

[gracevlikevrain.livejournal.com]

I saw that coming. =) The first time I saw a Baby Einstein video with all the pictures and music I had a really hard time believing that it was going to stimulate my child to genius (it would overstimulate them, if anything.) After all, Mozart and Einstein did alright without over-marketed baby toys.

One thing I have noticed...if you expose kids to music from a young age, then they seem to become familiar with it as they grow and some of them pick up on it faster when they try to learn about music. (That's kind of a duh, though.:) Like a few months ago we were in the car and Amy recognized "Piano!" during one of the songs on the radio, and she's been able to hum a tune for awhile. I don't think playing classical music will raise my kid's SAT scores, but they might have an easier time picking up an instrument or learning to read music. So I guess I'm trying to say that there are advantages to exposing babies and toddlers to Mozart and Beethoven ...but it's just in other areas than developing a generation of super-geniuses.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

There is evidence to suggest that studying music, especially harmonically complex music, raises kids' spatial and mathematical intelligences. Also that early exposure does indeed increase a child's ability to learn music, in particular rhythm and pitch. But for newborns? Yeah, right.