Have you ever wondered where you got your sense of rhythm from? Well, you can either blame
or thank your parents. I once read an article that said recent research uncovered bouncing your baby to music develops
their sense of rhythm. The same with singing to a child - even being a few months old, babies learn to recognize song
melodies.
Laurel Trainer was the first to study the relationship of movement and music. Trainer tested this theory using 16
seven-month-old infants. Half the infants were bounced on beats two and four while the other half were bounced on
beats one and three. The study found that the babies preferred the music with the pattern they had been bounced to.
Further study also showed that babies did not pick up rhythm by watching someone else - they had to be moved. The same
thing showed up in results when the babies were bounced blindfolded - they still could pick out the rhythms. The genre
of music also did not play an important role as long as the babies were interactively listening.
