Regardless of ability, they do better in language and memory tests and are better at planning and controlling their behaviour than classmates who do not have music lessons.
A child learning to read music is believed to use parts of their brain involved in memory and attention, which ‘trains’ them in other life skills.
In the Dutch study, 147 children with an average age of six were split into four groups. One was given school music lessons, another school and private music lessons, a third had no music lessons and a fourth attended art lessons only.
The children given music lessons, regardless of whether they had private tuition or their level of ability, saw brain improvements. Youngsters were tested on memory by remembering dots in a grid on a screen, and on vocabulary by naming the similarity between a cat and dog – for example, both are animals.
Those having music lessons did better than children without musical training, and were also better at controlling their behaviour.
Main Findings:
- Children in the visual arts group perform better on visuospatial memory tasks as compared to the three other conditions.
- However, the test scores on inhibition, planning and verbal intelligence increased significantly in the two music groups over time as compared to the visual art and no arts controls.
- Mediation analysis with executive functions and verbal IQ as mediator for academic performance have shown a possible far transfer effect from executive sub-function to academic performance scores.
- The present results indicate a positive influence of long-term music education on cognitive abilities such as inhibition and planning.
- Researchers have shown that practicing music for a longer period of time increases connectivity of the corpus callosum thus strengthening communication between both hemispheres and, more so, appealing to connectivity in the ventro-lateral (VL-PFC) and medial prefrontal cortex (M-PFC).
- Executive sub-functions such as planning, inhibition and working memory are equally recruited while playing music as when solving an arithmetic problem.
- Developing a standardised music curriculum for primary schools together with the expertise of the ministry of education and an expert centre for arts-based education, amalgamates knowledge from education, application and general skill development of young children.
WEB LINK
Longitudinal Analysis of Music Education on Executive Functions in Primary School Children