By Lia Peralta
Did you know that music education helps with cognitive development?
HIGHER TEST SCORES
Students in high-quality school music education programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of community.
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training. Musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics, and IQ.
LEARNING
Music enhances the process of learning. The systems it nourishes, which include our integrated sensory, attention, cognitive, emotional and motor capacities, are shown to be the driving forces behind all other learning.
SOURCES:
Nature Neuroscience, April 2007
Dr. Laurel Trainor, Prof. of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior at McMaster University, 2006
From Empathy, Arts and Social Studies, 2000; Konrad, R.R