Tyson recently found this article about the cognitive benefits of children learning a musical instrument. I thought it was interesting (and also I loved these pictures of Alexis that Tyson took a few weeks ago and thought this would be a great opportunity to share them!) So if you "really" love your children and want them to succeed they need to be learning a musical instrument!!! :)
"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.
Resarchers 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. The findings were detailed in the Oct. 29 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.
While the results suggest a link between music training and cognitive abilities, the researchers say further studies are needed to figure out whether one causes the other.
"It could be that kids who are better at these skills to begin with are the ones who stick with music training," Winner said. "So if I'm a really smart kid I'm more likely to stick with music training."
She added, "But it could also be that music training is improving my verbal and my non-verbal reasoning."
In a follow-up study, Winner's team is following students from the beginning of their music training, measuring cognitive skills along the way. If they do find a causal link between music and brainy tests, Winner said it would make sense.
"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."
4 comments:
Great pictures! What a lovely daughter you have. I will definitly be making my children take at least piano lessons when they get a little older...as long as they don't destroy the piano before then!
Awwww what great photos! And I agree on the musical instrument thing! Do you think Guitar Hero counts? HaHaHaHa
I am totally making my children learn to play something. I didn't refinish my piano for nothing!
(I think that sentence makes sense, but really it seems gramatically stupid)
Anyway, those pictures are really cute.
41 children. Who were they? Were their parents musically talented? What defines musically talented? You are basing the cognitive development that occurs in the brain due to music off of a study on 41 children!!!!!! Just kidding. Im just in critique article mode. Its true. Music does all those things. I should know, just wrote a large paper on it.
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