The soothing music will relax Mum and her unborn baby, and it has the added benefits of boosting brain and emotional development even at this super early stage.

Once the baby has arrived, and you’re trying to establish that elusive bedtime routine, familiar, comforting pieces of baby sleep music, such as Clair de Lune and The German Cradle Song, will signal that it’s time for snuggles and sleep.

Good quality sleep is essential for your baby’s mental development, immune system, growth and appropriate weight gain.

Calming baby music with gentle rhythms and slow, repetitive beats will also have a relaxing effect on babies (and parents!) who are feeling grumpy and irritable.

2. It will boost their brains

Numerous studies have shown that music can play a significant role in the development of a baby’s brain, in utero, in the first vital year of life and onwards into early childhood.

The Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences discovered that listening to music boosted a baby’s language development and ability to process speech. In addition, the Brain and Creativity Institute in Southern California reported that playing musical instruments sped up the brain development of study participants, which enhanced reading and speaking skills. And the National Association of Music Merchants in the US found that playing music throughout childhood increases the ability to process mathematical problems and improves SAT scores.

Exposure to music and enjoying making it themselves, be it with a pan and a wooden spoon, their own clapping hands or a trumpet, may improve their brain’s ability to form pathways and connections between cells. This amazing process is called neuroplasticity, and it is the brain growing through exposure to new experiences with sounds, physical movement and different sensations.

You can harness the power of music and movement through singing and dancing along to the wonderful variety of songs on The Rainbow Collection’s Dreams Album from the early stages of your pregnancy. Recent scientific studies have also revealed that babies in the womb who listened to baby classical music like the Sugar Plum Fairy for 70 hours in the weeks leading up to birth went on to have significantly more advanced speech and understanding, motor skills and problem-solving skills.

Music is also a brilliant way to help babies and toddlers learn and remember. For example, you can create simple but fun rhymes to sing when they recognise their need to use the potty or feed themselves with a spoon.

3. Helps with sensory development

Baby music and sensory classes are an excellent way to help your little one to blossom. The combination of stimulating music, movement and fun props boosts all their senses, including hearing, vision and touch.

Our senses allow us to explore and understand our environment, and hearing is one of the most important, especially in our early years. Sound helps babies to make sense of the world around them and leads to the development of speech and, subsequently, the ability to read and write.

Music and language are closely connected. As your baby listens to the songs you sing, they are learning to tell the difference between contrasting sounds and words and those that sound similar.

Singing lots of different songs, playing tunes from various artists and including classical music will all help enhance your baby’s ability to auditory and linguistic development.

4. Physical development will be boosted

Dancing along to music with your children is one of the greatest joys of parenthood. You could be rocking your newborn in time to a lullaby, bopping to a fun playlist with a baby on your hip or laughing with your toddler as you twirl around the room to songs from their favourite TV show.

Music is the perfect excuse for conscious movement and physical exercise that will nurture your child’s physical development and awareness of their own body. Dancing in time to a beat and clapping along enthusiastically to your tambourine playing will strengthen their muscles, heart and immune system.

Musical play also helps the body and brain to work well together; a child’s dexterity, fine motor skills and coordination will increase with the use of tiny keyboard keys, bells and maracas. Even blowing a trumpet or singing a song will help them to understand how their mouth, tongue and lips work.

5. Emotional awareness is increased

Music is a powerful language that can calm a fractious baby or cheer up a moody toddler. Children will respond to the tone of music from a very young age. For example, Mozart’s Requiem is a melancholic piece that is beautiful but also makes us feel sad. For children, feeling this sadness in a safe space will increase their emotional awareness and help them manage their moods’ ebb and flow.

Of course, music is a source of profound joy too. The happiness your little one will feel as you sing and bop along to a bouncy pop song or funny rhyme with a massive smile on your face will help them to understand their own feelings and those of others.

This understanding of the importance of music to the emotional development of children is why Sophie Barker and Kevin Kerrigan, the duo behind The Rainbow Collection albums, are determined that they produce ‘real music’ for children.

6. It will assist with social skills

Music energises the brain to produce the ‘feel good’ chemicals oxytocin and dopamine. When in a social situation, at a baby class, party or family get-together, this will encourage babies and toddlers to play ‘nicely,’ share toys, feel empathy and develop a sense of trust in the people around them, including other babies.

Playing music on a toy trumpet, clapping, and repeating the lyrics of a song in a group helps babies to understand how to express themselves and connect with others. In addition, laughing, singing and dancing and feeling the happiness that being with their peers can bring is vital for helping babies to build their social skills.

In 2012, a study by  McMaster University in Ontario found compelling evidence that infants who participated in baby’s music groups smiled more often and communicated more effectively.

Music is also a source of self-esteem and confidence, so make sure you clap and cheer when they play a fantastic tune on their makeshift drum kit or make up their own shouty song, even if your ears are hurting!

7. It will help with communication and language development

Making and responding to music should be part of your baby’s everyday life. Research has proven that little ones encouraged to wiggle or sway to music or tap a toy in time to the beat of a nursery rhyme will use simple forms of communication earlier. For example, they will ‘love’ a teddy bear with a hug or feed a doll with a spoon. These expressive actions are the first steps in the development of language skills.

Hearing both new and familiar songs, rhymes and raps will familiarise your baby with the concept of words, and the beat will help them remember the sounds needed to speak. A baby’s first ‘words’ will be in the form of babbling, and it’s intriguing how close those nonsense noises can sound to basic music.

Back in 1985, a comprehensive study showed how sensitive babies are to musical concepts like changes in pitch. This is probably because they heard the rhythms of their mother speaking when they were in the womb and are spoken to in a higher pitched ‘sing song’ voice by the delighted family and friends who visit them in the first weeks.

This early exposure to melodies in language explains why music and speech are so interlinked for young children.

8. Bonding moments

Parents often use music to communicate with their babies and young children. For example, a pacifying lullaby says it’s time to go to sleep, a jolly rhyme with silly faces and actions is a way to express joy, and a much-loved and familiar song combined with a cuddle will reassure.

Often it is the sound of the loving voice of the caregiver, rather than the song itself, that holds power and will form lifelong memories. Connecting with your baby this way is the start of a loving and happy relationship that will build their confidence, self-esteem and resilience as they age.

For quiet bonding moments, the Dreams Album is ideal as it combines classical music for babies, gentle lullabies and soothing songs. It’s a collection designed to be meditative for babies and their parents.

What’s the best music for babies and children?

Babies simply love music; they won’t be choosy about the genre you play. That said, music that has been composed specifically for infants is more likely to have the elements of music (pitch, dynamics, tempo, timbre, duration, tone, timbre and melody) that will help with your baby’s development.

For a contented home, it’s important to be mindful of choosing the right music for different times of the day. Albums such as ‘Dreams’ feature a carefully thought out bedtime collection of ‘real music’ from various genres such as classical, folk and traditional nursery rhymes.

It’s also worth remembering that babies will start to notice the difference between languages songs are sung in from six months, and the music you play shouldn’t be loud as it may damage their sensitive ears.