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The prestigious Oppenheim Toy Portfolio group bestowed their highest honor, the Platinum Audio Award, to our album Beautiful Baby, Wonderful Child. The Oppenheim Toy Portfolio awards have become a benchmark of excellence with consumers, toy makers and the media. They are the only independent consumer review of children’s media by child development experts.

This song focuses on several important psychological phenomena critical to development in the first year of life.  The first is the concept of "mutual gaze" in which the eyes of the infant and mother are locked together.  The mother's emotionally expressive face is the most powerful stimulus in the infant's world and he seeks every opportunity to engage in intense mutual gaze.  The emotional pleasure he takes in this experience is evident in his "full gape smile".  However, as we continue to watch, the baby will turn away breaking the gaze.  Scientists now realize that this is the way the infant is learning to tolerate growing intensity of emotion, an important skill in self-regulation.  Mom helps this process by being in tune with her baby's emotional states and modifying her behavior accordingly.

The second developmental skill addressed by the song is the child's ability to read his mother's facial emotional cues.  As the older infant and toddler start to explore their world, they may become tentative and fearful.  They then turn to "read" their mother's face for positive or negative cues.  When mom smiles reassuringly, they are content to continue their exploration.  If mom shows negative cues or ignores them, they may abandon their exploration and return to mom's safe haven for reassurance.

Finally, one important message from the breakthroughs in research on early brain development is that the experiences we give our children from the very beginning influence how the brain gets "wired".  As the renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Daniel Seigel so eloquently writes, "Human connections shape the neural connections from which the mind emerges."

Lyrics
Beautiful baby
Wonderful child
As your eyes meet mine
You and me, space and time
Melt away in love so pure
Turn away, go explore
When you look back you'll find
Once again your eyes meet mine
Always know
I'm watching as you go
When you need me by your side
My heart and arms are open wide
As the inches turn to miles
Look back and see
I'm still watching, breathlessly
Beautiful baby
Wonderful child

Tips for Parents

• Use feeding time as an opportunity to extend the time of mutual gaze.  Many positive pathways are being formed in the brain in areas involved in attachment.  Secure attachment in childhood shapes the quality of relationships that child will have throughout his life.
• Stay attuned to your child as they explore their world.  Give them visual reassurances to prolong their initiative in getting to understand the world around them.

Songwriter's Notes - I first played Prelude in C major by J. S. Bach (1685-1750) as a young piano student. As I became a song writer, I thought that it would make a wonderful background for a song. Later I found that other composers had the same idea, most notably Charles Gounod (1818-1893), who used it for his Ave Maria. Here is my offering, based on this timeless masterpiece, in celebration of the relationship between caregiver and the growing child.   -David Kisor

Baby Baby, Wonderful Child is also available in an extended lullaby version to soothingly lure children to sleep.