Literacy news
Babies unwind wearing headphones
12 Aug 2005
It is not easy being born, so doctors in a Slovak hospital are offering their new arrivals an unusual stress reliever: headphones. One and two-day-old babies listen to classical music as part of an experimental programme.
Doctors at Kosice-Saca Hospital, the first private hospital in Slovakia, believe the music therapy helps newborns reduce stress and stay healthy. Shortly after birth, infants receive five 20-minute music sessions each day. Doctors found that while the tykes are tuned in, most of them fall asleep or lie quietly.
The hospital's observations could be linked to the still controversial ”Mozart effect”, which was first reported in Nature in 1993. In the study, scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, showed that listening to a Mozart piano sonata for 10 minutes prior to taking an intelligence test improved students' scores.
(National Geographic, 12 August 2005)
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