3 Benefits of Music Education for Kids

Research shows that learning music helps kids excel intellectually, socially, and personally. Music education, when introduced to children anywhere between the infant and teen years, enhances skills that kids use as they approach academics and all aspects of life.

Mary Luehrison, the executive director of the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation (NAMM), says that music-rich experiences bring serious benefits to children as they progress into formal learning. Luehrison is in charge of a non-profit that promotes making music as a benefit for kids, one that they can leverage as they develop language and work through school and life goals.

When children practice music, they have to tap into several skill sets, not simply move fingers to create sound. They need to simultaneously use eyes, ears, and hands to make music. They must critically think about what they see, hear, and do - and this supports learning in a multitude of ways.

Enhances Language Development

Kids between the ages of 2 and 9 especially benefit from music education in terms of language development. When children are born, they intuitively are ready to start decoding sounds and making words. As they develop, music classes can help them with their natural abilities and propel them along a development path that is beyond their peers. Children who grow up in an environment where importance is placed on music have an advantage in developing language skills. Even if there is no music focus in the home, kids can practice and celebrate music, and have it reinforced, in a music education setting and still reap language development benefits.

Recent studies show that music training is able to assist development in the left side of the brain, which is the part of the brain known to process language. Learning music can actually manipulate the circuits of the brain in specific ways, leading to better language competence which in turn leads to more confidence with verbal social skills.

Boosts Spatial-Temporal Skills

Studies have also shown a causal link between learning music and spatial perception. This means that knowing how to understand music assists kids with visualizing how various things should be put together. It is a bit like learning to complete a math problem.

The skills that are necessary to learn and play music, and to work through a complex math situation, come into play in various scenarios in life like creating art, playing games, building structures, and programming computers. Developing music skills, as with developing math skills, is a multi-step process that improves spatial temporal knowledge on a broad scale and at an increasing rate over time.

Increases IQ

In 2004, Psychological Science published a study by E. Glen Schellenberg, from the University of Toronto at Mississauga, that revealed 6 year olds who were given weekly voice and piano lessons increased their IQs during the study period. To conduct this research, Schellenberg gave the children 9 months of voice and piano lessons, provided drama classes to another group of 6 year olds over the same course of time, and offered no lessons at all within 9 months to a third group of kids the same age.

All kids took an IQ test before the study and before entering first grade, and they took another IQ test afterwards and before entering second grade. Schellenberg showed, based on his research, that kids who were given music lessons averaged an increase of 3 IQ points from the first test to the second. The other groups did not experience an increase of as much.

It is thought that the brain works differently when it is exposed to music education. Dr. Eric Rasmussen, who chairs the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University, says that there is significant neuroscience research available pointing to a growth in neuro activity in kids who have had music training. He offers that this growth is not seen in children who do not receive music education.

Masters Institute of Music realizes how critical music education is for children’s development, and we know the personal enrichment music can bring to the life of a child. We welcome you to come visit our facility to learn more about music classes for your youngster, and we look forward to speaking to you in person - or by phone - so we can share our unique music program with you. Drop by or email us to schedule an appointment!