It’s a ritual that’s been used to encourage children to go to sleep for decades: the bedtime story. Many of us have fond memories of our parents, and even grandparents, reading to us to help us wind down before slumber. And, while an exciting or comforting story is a key ingredient in this recipe, it’s not the only factor that helps a little one to drift off.
Research indicates that a parent’s voice plays a crucial role in soothing and reassuring children, even in that parent’s absence. Stanford Medicine has published a study showing that hearing a mother’s voice activates multiple regions in a child’s brain associated with emotion and social functioning. Children’s brains literally respond more strongly to their mother’s voice than to unfamiliar voices, highlighting its unique influence.
Listening to your voice can also significantly reduce your child’s anxiety. A study reported by Live Science reveals that simply hearing a mother’s voice over the phone can calm stressed children as effectively as a physical gesture, like a hug or kiss. This is because hearing a loved one’s voice releases oxytocin, a hormone linked to emotional attachment.
Hearing a mother’s voice may even make a child more likely to play a musical instrument. A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, shows a foetus can indeed hear the voice of its mother, particularly when singing, thereby creating a link to musical aptitude.
However, it’s not just mothers whose voices children need to hear. Some studies show that fathers specifically contribute to children’s vocabulary growth, through their own diverse use of words. Fathers also tend to ask more clarifying questions of children, including during book reading, such as ‘what’ and ‘why’, something that helps children with language development and conversation skills.
But in a world of business trips, after-hours meetings and long commutes, it’s not always possible to be there when your child needs to go to sleep. Plenty of parents know what happens when their child can’t listen to their favourite story before bedtime – it can cause great emotional turmoil, right when your child needs to be calm.
Personalised audiobooks offer a practical way to leverage the comforting effects of a parent’s voice. By recording stories in your own voice, you can provide your children with a sense of presence and reassurance, even when you are not physically available. This practice can be especially beneficial during bedtime routines or periods of separation, fostering a sense of security and continuity for your child.
Incorporating personalised audiobooks into a child’s routine when you cannot be there, not only relaxes and reassures but also strengthens the parent-child bond, contributing positively to the child’s emotional development and language development.
Stories are what make us human and personalised audiobooks are able to continue a tradition of oral storytelling, that relieves the pressure on parents who are unable to offer children their physical presence all the time.