Musical Training Makes Kids Smarter, Study Suggests
Thursday, November 13, 2008
By Jeanna Bryner, FOXNews
By Jeanna Bryner, FOXNews
Children who study a musical instrument for at least three years outperform children with no instrumental training on non-musical tests of vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning. This new finding adds to a list of music's magic. Past research has shown tunes can evoke strong memories, reduce stress and even boost athletic performance.
Researchers compared 41 kids, ages 8 to 11, who had studied either piano or a string instrument for at least three years, with 18 children who had no instrument training. Children in both groups spent about half an hour each week in music classes at school. But instrument-wielding kids also attended private music lessons for an average of 45 minutes a week and practiced on their own at home. Tests showed the kids who practiced instruments scored much higher than their non-musical counterparts on auditory discrimination and finger dexterity, both skills closely tied with musical training.
The young musicians' vocabulary scores were 15 percent higher, and non-verbal reasoning scores were 11 percent higher. The longer the child was musically trained, the higher the scores. The study was done by Gottfried Schlaug of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and psychologist Ellen Winner of Boston College and Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and their colleagues.
"Music involves grasping patterns, and the non-verbal reasoning task involves grasping patterns," Winner told LiveScience. "You have to pay attention to the pattern of sounds, and you also have to pay attention to the pattern of the notes when you're looking at music notation."
The research was funded by the Dana Foundation, International Foundation for Music Research and National Science Foundation.
Researchers compared 41 kids, ages 8 to 11, who had studied either piano or a string instrument for at least three years, with 18 children who had no instrument training. Children in both groups spent about half an hour each week in music classes at school. But instrument-wielding kids also attended private music lessons for an average of 45 minutes a week and practiced on their own at home. Tests showed the kids who practiced instruments scored much higher than their non-musical counterparts on auditory discrimination and finger dexterity, both skills closely tied with musical training.
The young musicians' vocabulary scores were 15 percent higher, and non-verbal reasoning scores were 11 percent higher. The longer the child was musically trained, the higher the scores. The study was done by Gottfried Schlaug of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and psychologist Ellen Winner of Boston College and Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and their colleagues.
"Music involves grasping patterns, and the non-verbal reasoning task involves grasping patterns," Winner told LiveScience. "You have to pay attention to the pattern of sounds, and you also have to pay attention to the pattern of the notes when you're looking at music notation."
The research was funded by the Dana Foundation, International Foundation for Music Research and National Science Foundation.
5 comments:
Thanks for the good article. Music is a blessing, although it is not often recognized as such during the early years of lessons. I think I might need this article for future battles, but I'll have to delete the "3 year" part.
You are a mean mom. How dare you try to enrich your children's lives. The nerve.
I had to go and play a little piano before I could grasp completely your concepts. You have inspired me to take lessons as soon as school is over.
I have these studies...and the I am a "mean" mom too. But come on...they always come out with these studies and don't factor in the fact that the "mean" mom who drives them to music lessons is also the "mean" mom who reads to them and the "mean" mom who makes them do their homework...and they usually have a Dad who is a real jerk who is bringing home enough bacon to have Mom at home AND pay for private music lessons. Is a family blog the appropriate place for these kinds of rants? Did you want the twenty word comment? I have just been looking lately at my beyond fortunate children thinking they need a little less chauffeuring and a little more hard labor.
I'm a "mean mom" for far less noble things. I do think music can be such a wonderful part of family life. I look forward to starting the boys on piano when they are older and (hopefully) more mature.
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