Children and Music

Working with children and music is fun and rewarding. Research shows that learning music in childhood enhances brain development.

Children and music, maths and science . . .

A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science.

From: Neurological Research, Vol. 19, February 1997 'Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning.' Shaw, Rauscher, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb.

A study of 237 second grade children and music, used piano keyboard
training and newly designed math software to demonstrate improvement in math
skills. The group scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests
than children that used only the math software.

'Enhanced learning of proportional math through music training and spatial-temporal training.' Amy Graziano, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, Neurological Research 21 (March 1999).

Nearly every college in America accepts the SAT or Subject Tests as a part of its admissions process. Students with experience in music performance scored 41 points higher on the math test, and 57 points higher on the verbal test, than did students with no music participation.

College-Bound Seniors National Report: 'Profile of SAT Program Test Takers.' Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001.

Students in two Rhode Island elementary schools who were given an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program showed marked improvement in reading and math skills. Students in the enriched program who had started out behind the control group caught up to statistical equality in reading and pulled ahead in maths.

As reported in Nature, May 23, 1996 Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles.

Children and music — music training increases children's IQ

A University of California (Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

From: 'Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship,' University of California, 1994 Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Ky, Irvine and Wright.

Frances Rauscher, a psychologist, began a study that measured the effects
of music lessons on three-year-olds. She discovered that children who received
voice and keyboard lessons scored between eight and ten points higher on IQ
tests that measured their spatial-temporal skills-the ability to visualize the
world accurately. These skills are very important in understanding math and
engineering concepts.

'Music and Spatial Task Performance.' Frances H. Rauscher, Nature 1993.

A study was conducted by Leng and Shaw of preschool children who received
piano keyboard lessons for six months. An impressive gain was found in their
spatial-temporal reasoning tasks. It was also found in appropriate control
groups using other methods (including a computer group) that they did not
significantly improve. This suggests math and science concepts that are
difficult to teach can be learned using ST reasoning at an early age. Music
instructions at an early age can enhance the hardware in the brain for
spatial-temporal reasoning.

'Spatial-Temporal Versus Language-Analytic Reasoning.' Temple Grandin, Matthew Peterson and Gordon L. Shaw. Arts Education Policy Review 99: July/August 1998.

Researchers at the University of California Irvine studied the power of music and children to train us for higher thinking. They observed two separate groups of preschoolers. Group one took piano lessons and sang daily in a chorus.
Group two did neither. After a period of eight months the musical three year
olds in group one were expert puzzle masters, scoring eighty percent higher than their playmates in spatial intelligence.

'Why Do Schools Flunk Biology' Lynnell Hancock, Newsweek 147. (1996)

A research team led by Gottfried Schlaug, of Germanys Hienrich Heime
University in Dasseldorf, found that the corpus callosum, the central bundle of
nerve fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres, was larger in musicians who
had trained from an early age. Schlaug thinks that because playing a musical
instrument requires good coordination between hands, training early in life lays
down a better insulated wiring that speeds motor communication between the
brain's left and right hemispheres.

'Music of the Hemispheres'. James Shreeve, 'Discover'. October 1996

Children and Music — childhood music training enhances children's intelligence, self-knowledge and expression

"The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style,
rhythm, phrasing, and feeling-training the brain to become incredibly good at
organizing and conducting numerous activities at once. Dedicated practice of
this orchestration can have a great payoff for lifelong attentional skills,
intelligence, and an ability for self-knowledge and expression."

From: A User's Guide to the Brain by John J. Ratey, MD. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.

"It is during the childhood stage of neural development that we see the corpus callosum complete its development and allows both hemispheres of the brain to respond to an event simultaneously. Since studies of musicians have found their corpus callosum is thickened and more fully developed, the idea that the music enlarges existing neural pathways is reinforced".

'The Mozart Effect' Don Campbell, New York: Avon. 1997.

"The very best engineers and technical designers in the Silicon Valley
industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians". 'The Paradox of
the Silicon Savior,' Grant Venerable as reported in "The Case for Sequential
Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public Schools,"

The Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, New York, 1989.

Source: MENC-The National Association for Music Education "Benefits of Music
Education" Brochure, 'Spring 2002'.

Academy of Guitar • Christchurch • New Zealand • Tel: 03 385 0373

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