Infant-Directed Singing From a Dynamic Multimodal Perspective: Evolutionary Origins, Cross-Cultural Variation, and Relation to Infant-Directed Speech

We conceptualize infant song as a dynamic, multimodal form of communication between mother and infant that originated to support infant care in harsh conditions. The propensity for infant-directed singing has persisted across millennia despite vast improvements in living circumstances and outcomes because it continues to facilitate caregiving and enhance parent–infant bonds. Nonetheless, there are notable differences across cultures, which arise from divergent social and economic circumstances and contrasting conceptions of infants. Unimodal infant-directed singing has notable effects on infant attention and affect, but multimodal singing has particularly important consequences for parent–infant dyads in ordinary as well as atypical circumstances.