`Songese': maternal structuring of musical interaction with infants

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal structure of mother—infant interactions with songs, with particular attention to two aspects: 1) the singing of the mothers to their infants, and 2) the non-verbal behaviours mothers and infants produce in synchrony with the musical beat. Four mother—infant dyads were video-recorded when the infants were 3—4 months of age and again when they were 7—8 months old. Mothers were asked to sing songs of their choice while interacting with their infants. Analyses of the mothers' singing and synchronous behaviours with the beat revealed that they emphasized the hierarchical structure of the song and provided a segmentation of the temporal structure of the interaction. Infants were shown to be sensitive to their mothers' emphasis by producing significantly more synchronous behaviours on some beats than on others. It is suggested that the multimodal sensory information provided by the mothers ensures the infants' effective learning and conveys the characteristics of what could be called `songese' — the equivalent of `motherese'.