We can never repeat it enough, for their good development, it is essential to speak to children. But according to a new study, something would make them even happier.
The fetus recognizes the voice of his parents in his maternal belly and links are gradually woven. Real communication is established throughout pregnancy, which parents continue to maintain after the birth of their child. Talking to your baby is necessary, even if you feel like it doesn’t understand everything. The sweetness of the voice, the intention, the modulations, are as many elements that the baby perceives and interpreter. Speaking to him reassures him, soothes him, allows him to better understand what is going on around him. The expression of our face also affects how baby understands what is told. Seeing a benevolent smile, laughing eyes, reassures him.
If the voice of his dad is very important for a baby, several studies have looked into the crucial role of the maternal voice in the development of the child. A study by psychiatrists from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Stanford has shown that hearing their mother’s voice triggers prosocial reactions in children, that is to say empathy and actions directed to others. According to this study, the strength of the neurological response of a child to his mother’s voice “predicts the social communication capacities of this child”.
But even more than talking to babies, it is indeed singing that would have the most important impact. Indeed, a study by the University of Montreal has shown that singing to babies allowed them to remain calm twice as long as they speak to them.
Sally Goddard Blythe, director of the Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology in the United Kingdom, believes that singing lullabies and nursery rhymes with babies is “an essential precursor of academic success and subsequent emotional well-being”. And no need to have Céline Dion’s voice for it to work!
