Play with your baby more than you play the Mozart CD for the baby

The ready popular acceptance of the ‘Mozart effect’ as if it were a scientific fact speaks volumes about contemporary society and the quest to get something for nothing, such as 'intelligence' without concerted and directed effort. The most worrying manifestation of this has been the marketing of tapes and CDs purporting to be Mozart for Babies. It appears to me that many parents today are just too busy chasing their dreams of professional and social success to invest much time in raising up their offspring. A few years back, Alison Gopnik of UC, Berkeley and others had brought out a fascinating book called The Scientist in the Crib, What Early Learning tells us About the Mind. The authors relate experimental and other evidence that supports the call for parents and other care-givers to provide a stimulating environment involving human interaction to help grow the brains of infants. Popping in a Mozart CD in the latest Bose surround-sound home theatre may make the parents feel smart and successful, but the evidence mentioned in this news article suggests that unless they also spend a lot of time playing with their kids, such parents would probably be stoking their delusionary ego more than they would be helping develop the neuronal networks of their kids.

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