The following research was done for:
NAEYC Program Standards/Criteria in Washington, DC:
Program Standard 5 states: “The program consistently implements a curriculum that promotes learning and development for all children across cognitive, linguistic, physical, social and emotional domains.”
In order to have a curriculum that best serves the developmental years of pre-schoolers, music education should be included. Basic elements of rhythm, melody and steady beat are fundamental tools for pre-reading skills. Studies show that music education in preschool years help develop memory, listening skills and increased attention spans. Research shows that children exposed to music education in preschool years score higher on standardized intelligence tests. (MuSICA Research Notes, 1, Vol. 1, Issue 1, Spring 1994 documents some of the beneficial effects of music on cognitive achievement in children, specifically for reading and mental spatial abilities.)
There is a direct relationship between music and aspects of intelligence that proves music is important in the education of children. Further research shows that musical training in fact helps develop brain growth, if such training is received in the early years.
In a study by Ramey and Frances Campbell of the University of North Carolina (reported in “You Can Raise Your Child’s IQ in Readers Digest October 1996) preschool children taught with games and songs showed an IQ advantage of 1
A study done by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (reported in October 1993 issue of Nature) found that the spatial reasoning skills of 19 preschool children who were given 8 months of music lessons far exceeded the spatial reasoning performance of 15 children who had no musical training. The training sessions the children received lasted 15 minutes, yet the children scored significantly higher. The research was based on a neurobiology that posits that music will enhance higher brain functions. There are certain synaptic connections being made through music training that are similar to those required for abstract and spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning abilities are crucial for complex mathematics. As stated by Dr. Rauscher, “It has been clearly documented that young students have difficulty understanding the concepts of proportion (heavily used in math and science). The high proportion of children who evidenced dramatic improvement in spatial-temporal reasoning as a result of music training should be of great interest to scientists and educators.”
Research at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California at Irvine proclaimed that music can and does make you smarter and created the term “The Mozart Effect”. (Mozart’s pieces have been found to be especially beneficial due to the progression and order found in his works.)
Howard Gardner, a cognitive psychologist from Harvard University, who developed a Theory of Multiple Intelligences states: “Music helps organize the way they (children) think and work by helping them develop in other areas, such as math, language, and spatial reasoning.”
As reported in the American School Board Journal, Jan. 1997, in “The Musical Mind” by Susan Black, neuromusical investigations are producing evidence that infants are born with neural mechanisms devoted exclusively to music. More importantly, it has shown that early and ongoing musical training helps organize and develop children’s brains.
The journal Neurophysiology, published in Science in 1995, reported that musicians who started training before the age of seven had 12% thicker nerve fibers in the corpus callous, that part of the brain that carries signals between the two hemispheres.
In Newsweek, Sharon Begley’s article, “Your Child’s Brain…” reported that researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany had evidence that exposure to music rewires neural circuits.
Researchers at the University of Munster in Germany reported in “Active Music Making Expands the Brain”, their discovery music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. An area used to analyze the pitch of a musical note is enlarged 25% in musicians. The research also showed that the earlier the musicians were when they started musical training, the bigger this area of the brain appears to be.
A report by John Langstaff and Elizabeth Mayer in Learning, March/April 1996 showed that by approximately age 11, neuron circuits that permit all kinds of perceptual and sensory discrimination, such as identifying pitch and rhythm, become closed off. Not using them dooms the child to be forever tone deaf and offbeat.
For children to benefit from music education, music training needs incorporate the elements of rhythm, beat, pitch, tone and the children need to be actively involved, not just listening to music. In “Education Week” April 8, 1998 issue, the cover story highlights music research. The article “Music on the Mind” by Debra Viadero clearly states the effects of what is known of music listening and music training in the development of children. As stated by Dr. Rauscher concerning the article, “There is little evidence to suggest that just listening to music produces lasting intellectual benefits. A must read for any policy maker, decision maker, educator, parent or advocate.”
Research also shows that music is more important in the development of pre-schoolers than computers. As reported in Neurological Research, February 1997, pre-schoolers who studied piano performed 34 percent better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers. Further research by Rauscher & Shaw, reported that preschoolers who took singing and keyboard lessons scored 80 percent higher on object-assembly tests than students at the same preschool who did not have the music lessons. Further study, Neurosci. Letters, 1995, 185, 44-47, found that listening to a taped short story did not enhance test scores.
Early musical training can have lasting, even lifetime effects. As reported by the College Entrance Examination Board in 1996, students who study music scored higher on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT.
Program Standard 3 states, “The program promotes positive relationships among all children and adults to encourage children’s sense of individual worth and responsibility as members of a community.
As reported in Update: Applications of Research in Music Education Fall/Winter 1994, research was cited that in addition to an enhancement of self-concept as an outcome of music education, trust and cooperation, empathy and social skills were also shown to be benefits of a music education.
In the 1980 Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education(2), James Hanshumaker confirms that music education is highly beneficial, not only within its own domains, but in general intellectual and social development.
Dr. Arthur Harvey in his article, An Intelligence View of Music Education, defines Musical Intelligence as: The capacity to perceive, discriminate, transform and express
Music is important in the education of all young children.
References:
- Business Week, “How Many Smarts Do You Have”, Sept. 16, 1996
- Discover, “Music of the Hemispheres”, Oct. 1996
- Educational CyberPlayground, “Music Beats Computers at Enhancing Early Childhood
- Development”, “Functional Anatomy of Human Music Processing”
- Family Circle “5 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR MUSIC IQ’, Sept. 17, 1996
- Gardner, Howard. “Frames of Mind”, New York: Basic Books. 1983
- Learning “Music: Exercise for the Brain”, March/April 1996
- NAASP Bulletin, Music Intelligence and the Benefits of Music Education, Nov. 1996
- Nature, “Active Music Making Expands the Brain”, April 23, 1998, “Music and Spatial Task Performance”, Oct. 14, 1993
- Neurological Research, Rauscher & Shaw, Feb. 1997
- Newsweek, “Your Child’s BRAIN: How Kids are Wired for Music, Math & Emotions, Feb.1996
- Our Kids Magazine, “Music Makes Kids Smarter”, Aug. 1996
- Parents Magazine “Does Music Make Babies Smart?”, Aug. 1996
- The American School Board Journal “The Musical Mind”, Jan. 1997
- The New York Times International, “A Lot of Japanese are Making a Lot of Music,
- WuDunn, Sheryl. May 15, 1996
- The New York Times: Science Times, “The Mystery of Music: How IT works in the
- Brain”, May 16, 1995
- Unleashing the Brain’s Potential, International Alliance for Learning Conference, Jan. 1997
- U.S. News and World Report, “The Musical Brain”, June 11, 1990
- Weinberger, Norman M., “The Nonmusical Outcomes of Music Education”, 1999
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