Should my child attend music classes?

Should my child attend music classes?

[mme_highlight] The influence of formal musical training on auditory cognition has been well established. Recent studies have demonstrated a causal link between musical training and actual changes in brain. Research has demonstrated that already at around the age of six months infants have the perceptual and cognitive prerequisites necessary to benefit from musical experiences.[mme_highlight]

At the time of choosing organized activities to enroll their children, many parents wish they can learn to play a music instrument. It is definitely a beautiful art, but does musical training also helps academic achievement? The current evidence suggests so. In fact, music as a part of daily informal activities may improve several cognitive functions; thereby learning music should be encouraged.
For those parents whose children already have other activities or who cannot afford their children attending music classes, keep in mind that the benefits of music for cognitive development can take place even without formal instrumental training – the advice is let your child listen to and play with music.

Can musical training improve academic achievement?

The influence of formal musical training on auditory cognition has been well established. Recent studies with children have demonstrated a causal link between musical training and actual changes in brain structure and function.

Skills like phonological awareness, speech-in-noise perception, rhythm perception, auditory working memory, and sound pattern learning improve with musical training, suggesting that musical training might provide an effective developmental educational strategy for all children, including those with language learning impairments.

In fact, auditory processing has been linked to the development of reading, as reading requires that sounds of spoken language are linked to their written forms.

Banai K. and colleagues followed 184 children to find if musical training (from 1 to 36 months long) could improve literacy linked skills. Their results, as shown in the box below, reveal that general cognitive ability, verbal memory span, frequency and temporal-interval discrimination thresholds were significantly correlated with musical experience.

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Correlation between music training and literacy related skills
(note: results presented for students without previous musical training, after analysis of variance)

  • Reading accuracy: r=-0.38 (p<0.05 – statistically significant)
  • Memory spans: r=-0.51 (p<0.01 – statistically significant)
  • Working memory: r=-0.56 (p<0.001 – statistically significant)
  • Phonological awareness: r=-0.42 (p<0.01 – statistically significant)

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A recent meta-analysis by Jaschke AC compiled these thrilling results concerning the benefits of musical training for learning.

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Association between musical training and cognitive skills
(note: results presented fall among the best associations found to date by studies; after a meta-analysis by Jaschke AC et al., 2013)

  • Writing: children who received musical training perform approximately 5 times better

    • (OR=5.223, p=0.002 – statistically significant); Register D, 2001.

  • Mathematics: children who received musical training perform approximately 9 times better

    • (OR=9.429, p=0.000 – statistically significant); Rickard NS et al., 2012.

  • Intelligence quotient (IQ): children who received musical training perform approximately 4 times better

    • (OR=4.032, p=0.001 – statistically significant); Portowitz A et al., 2009.

OR – odds ratio
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Which instrument to choose?

Even if starting by a specific instrument such as piano or violin can seem exciting for parents, music teachers advise it is better to let children try the different instruments and let teachers decide what instrument your child is best at. This will raise the odds of success in musical training for your children, avoiding the loss of motivation and costs that can be implied in changing from one instrument to another.

At which age to begin?

For children, musical experience does not primarily consist of adult-guided training on a musical instrument. Remember your young children engage in everyday musical activities such as singing, dancing and musical play and this should certainly be as encouraged as possible. However, as the research results prove, children benefit from attending music classes.

Research has demonstrated that already at around the age of six months infants have the perceptual and cognitive prerequisites necessary to benefit from musical experiences. Apparently, infants encode melodies in terms of relative pitch and duration, surprisingly showing long-term memory for musical pieces. Skills like neural discrimination of different intervals, sound grouping and detecting the beat of rhythmic sounds may be present already before the age of six months or even at birth.

These findings definitely reinforce that everyday musical activities are a rich source of experiences with potential to enhance skill development.

In addition, some clinical studies have reported that musical activities may play a role in the the recovery of hearing in children with cochlear implants.

Early childhood, while the brain has still plasticity, may therefore be the best for infants and children to take advantage of musical activities.

Summary and Recommendations

  • Musical training induces changes in brain.
  • Musical training improves cognitive skills, like reading, writing, mathematics and overall intelligence. Aesthetical sensitivity and general culture also benefit from experiences with music.
  • From birth to 6 months, babies already have the capacity to benefit from musical experiences, which therefore should be promoted as early as possible.
  • Children who can enroll in music classes may benefit in artistic and cognitive levels, but also regarding sensitivity, self-esteem, confidence and creativity.

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References

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