When do babies start hearing?

A baby can already hear in the mother's womb hear: it senses her heartbeat and thus registers, even in the earliest stages of life, a steady rhythm. Children can also hear the whooshing of blood and the sound of voices even before they are born. After birth, the hearing ability develops further through external stimuli and the baby's brain gradually learns to process different kinds of information, enabling the child to achieve fully developed hearing.

Sounds and voices of familiar people

In the first months of life, babies are particularly fond of the voices of people who are familiar to them. These are usually the mother and father, who can soothe their baby with a gentle word or a song. This also helps to promote the child’s hearing and language development. Music is very calming for babies as well. In the first months babies can already distinguish sounds quite precisely: for some children a music box has a lulling effect, while others fall asleep to the hum of the vacuum cleaner. From around three months, babies will generally begin to imitate sounds and will squeak, hum or babble.

Babies love rhythm and musical instruments

Young children enjoy singing and making music and love moving to it. They react with curiosity to different sounds and voices and experience music and rhythm as something very natural. Making music together and experimenting with a range of objects and instruments not only supports their auditory perception but also their emotional and social skills.

Research regularly shows that children who grow up with music tend to walk earlier and start speaking sooner. First come sung nursery rhymes and finger games, then experiments with different musical instruments that affirm and delight children's natural curiosity for tones and sounds. Read more here about how you can introduce musical variety into your child's life.

Supporting auditory perception in babies and toddlers

Supporting auditory perception with activity centres

Early toys such as grasping toys or activity centres enable babies to explore different sounds and to produce them themselves, e.g. a crinkle, a rustle or a jingle.

Supporting auditory perception with musical toys

musical instruments for toddlers give children, during and after their second year, playful access to musical development and a sense of rhythm. Trying them out is tremendous fun, either alone or in a group, as children set drums, rattles, rhythm sticks and flutes ringing.

Supporting auditory perception with interactive hand puppets

Particularly popular with babies and toddlers are the hand puppets with effects. These little play companions are brought to life by adults and built-in rattles or squeakers make play more lively. Children can also bring the sound hand puppets to life themselves. This stimulates all the senses!