Learning to play a musical instrument or to sing can
help disadvantaged children strengthen their reading and language skills,
according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's
122nd Annual Convention.
The findings, which involved hundreds of kids participating in musical
training programs in Chicago and Los Angeles public schools, highlight the role
learning music can have on the brains of youth in impoverished areas, according
to presenter Nina Kraus, PhD, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University.
"Research has shown that there are differences in the brains of
children raised in impoverished environments that affect their ability to
learn," said Kraus. "While more affluent students do better in school
than children from lower income backgrounds, we are finding that musical
training can alter the nervous system to create a better learner and help
offset this academic gap." Up until now, research on the impact of musical
training has been primarily conducted on middle- to upper-income music students
participating in private music lessons, she said.
Kraus's lab research has concluded that musical training appears to
enhance the way children's nervous systems process sounds in a busy
environment, such as a classroom or a playground. This improved neural function
may lead to enhanced memory and attention spans which, in turn, allow kids to
focus better in the classroom and improve their communication skills, she said.
Many of Kraus's study participants are part of the Harmony Project in
Los Angeles, which was founded by fellow presenter Margaret Martin, PhD. In her
most recent research, Kraus studied children beginning when they were in first
and second grade. Half participated in musical training and the other half were
randomly selected from the program's lengthy waiting list and received no
musical training during the first year of the study. Children who had no
musical training had diminished reading scores while Harmony Project
participants' reading scores remained unchanged over the same time span.
Kraus's lab
also found that, after two years, neural responses to sound in adolescent music
students were faster and more precise than in students in another type of
enrichment class. The researchers tested the auditory abilities in adolescents
from lower economic backgrounds at three public high schools in Chicago. Over
two years, half of the students participated in either band or choir during
each school day while the other half were enrolled in Junior Reserve Officer's
Training Corps classes, which teaches character education, achievement,
wellness, leadership and diversity. All participants had comparable reading
ability and IQs at the start of the study. The researchers recorded the
children's brain waves as they listened to a repeated syllable against soft
background sound, which made it harder for the brain to process. The
researchers repeated measures after one year and again at the two-year mark.
They found music students' neural responses had strengthened while the JROTC
students' responses had remained the same. Interestingly, the differences in
the music students' brain waves in response to sounds as described above
occurred after two years but not at one year, which showed that these programs
cannot be used as quick fixes, Kraus said. This is the strongest evidence to
date that public school music education in lower-income students can lead to
better sound processing in the brain when compared to other types of enrichment
education, she added.
Even after the lessons stop, the brain still reaps benefits, according
to studies on the long-term benefits of music lessons. In one study, Kraus's
team surveyed college students and asked them how many years they had music
training. As they found with the elementary school students, college students
who had more than five years of musical training in elementary school or high
school had improved neural responses to sound when compared to college students
who had had no musical training.
The Harmony Project provides
instruments for the students who participate five or more hours a week in
musical instruction and ensemble rehearsals. The project is year-round and
tuition-free based on income, said Martin. Many of the programs build full-time
bands in neighborhoods where the students live and the students agree to commit
to the program from elementary school through high school, she said.
"We're spending millions of dollars on drugs to help kids focus
and here we have a non-pharmacologic intervention that thousands of disadvantaged
kids devote themselves to in their non-school hours -- that works," Martin
said. "Learning to make music appears to remodel our kids' brains in ways
that facilitates and improves their ability to learn."
The
Harmony Project has launched programs in other urban school districts,
including Miami, New Orleans, Tulsa, Kansas City, Missouri and Ventura,
California.
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