Repeating favourite rhymes and acting out gestures to songs are more than just fun for the youngest children. Jennie Lindon explains their role in development
Babies are born ready to be social, to start early communication from day one. Research into how babies' brains develop has found that the part of their brain that deals with hearing has been working before birth. So parents who say that their newborns seem to recognise particular songs or pieces of music are not fooling themselves. A very young baby probably does recognise the nursery rhyme she frequently heard from inside the womb when it was a favourite of her toddler brother.
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