Music education is beneficial for everybody and not just the budding stars of tomorrow. Children with a musical background excel in other areas of learning as well. Listening and learning to play music is a very involved activity. Not only must people learn how to utilize different skill sets simultaneously, but integrating them into a symbiotic relationship from which those skills as well as others are able to grow.
According to PBS, music is very helpful in language development. Though children devoid of any sort of music exposure still have skills they need for development, music is an enhancement to these innate abilities. Mary Luehrisen, Executive Director for the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), says that the inborn capacity for language
needs to be “reinforced, practiced, celebrated which can be done at home or in a more formal music education setting.” According to Dr. Kyle Pruett, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, “Language competence is at the root of social competence. Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.” Dr. Pruett is a practicing musician in addition to his career in education.
A study at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, published in Psychological Science in 2004 found an increase in the IQ of six-year-olds who had been receiving music lessons. Over the period of a year, the six-year-olds were split into three groups. One group received music lessons, while another group got drama lessons. The final group received no special lessons. The music group had an average increase of three more IQ points than either of the other groups.
Not only does music seem to raise IQ, but also increases certain neural pathways and development. In addition to heightened sound recognition, fine motor tasks can also be enhanced.
There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence. According to some research at the Performing Arts Medicine Association, understanding music helps children visualize various complementary elements and their relationships.
Though learning music can be very beneficial for children, Pruett stresses that music does not make children smarter, but simply helps train them to use their innate abilities much more comfortably. Music education is helpful when learning to learn and to think, but does not increase one’s capacity for thought as far as we know.
from Christine Holley http://ift.tt/1iQkDVq
Christine Holley 