Music
Music offers many benefits for the developing mind and is an incredibly important part of our curriculum.
Music can change the way your child learns, grows and develops. Incorporating music into our curriculum, we at Allie and Friends believe, will better prepare them for their ongoing education and their bright futures ahead. There is extensive research into the benefits of music in early development and cognitive functions. Because of this, Allie and Friends has incorporated rhythm, music, singing and dance into many aspects of our educational program. Whether its using rhythms and patterns to teach fundamentals of math an numbers or songs we sing to teach about hygiene, we know how music can improve learning and make subjects more fun. We have also teamed up with a locally renowned musician and educator, Maureen Conlin of Happy Notes, to provide a more comprehensive music class to our students.
Our commitment to incorporating music into our curriculum is based on science and extensive research into the many benefits children can receive from early musical learning.
Music Effects the Way the Brain Develops
A recent study suggests that musical training before the age of seven can have a significant effect on brain development. The study, which was published in the Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, showed children who began musical training early had enlargement of the right ventral premotor cortex (vPMC) which is related to improved auditory-motor synchronization performance. It has also been shown to increase grey matter density in areas of the brain related to executive functions, syntactic processing, tonal sensitivity, visuomotor coordination, visual pattern recognition and working memory. (James et al, 2014)
Music can help children other activities and attain better performance in school
Music may help children perform better in non-music related skills and tasks in school. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology showed significant improvements in school than students who were not playing an instrument and those who were taking optional handicraft lessons. The study consisted of two schools, the teachers of seven classes and 134 children. The study examined variation in testing in two second languages, German and French; mathematics; combined history, natural history and geography; handicrafts, music and sports. Music proved significant even when taking into account the students age, gender and parent’s income. According to the study, second languages saw significant increases with musically trained students achieving .4 points higher or 6.66% increase on 6 point scale. (Wetter et all 2009). Music training has also been correlated to improved linguistic aptitude and may have an effect on the brains music and linguistic organization. (Milovanov & Tervaniemi 2011)
Mathematics scores for musically trained students also showed a similar increases, .4 point, 6.66% improvement over their non musically trained counterparts while history/natural history/geography saw a .5 and 8.33% increase in scores (Wetter et all 2009).
Music Effects Timing.
Musical training improves timing. Musicians are more reactive to a varied beat and made fewer errors in anticipating a beat than non-musicians. Musicians also used their pre-frontal cortex to a greater extent than non-musicious. Regions of the pre-frontal cortex is believed to be responsible for perceiving metric and non-metric rhythms. (Chen, 2008)
References
Chen, J. L., Penhune, V. B., & Zatorre, R. J. (2008). Moving on Time: Brain Network for Auditory–Motor Synchronization is Modulated by Rhythm Complexity and Musical Training. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20(2), 226-239.
James,C.E.,Oechslin,M.S.,VanDeVille,D.,Hauert,C.A.,Descloux,C.,and Lazeyras,F.(2014).MusicalTrainingintensityyieldsoppositeeffectsongrey matterdensityincognitiveversussensorimotornetworks. BrainStruct.Funct. 219, 353–366.doi:10.1007/s00429-013-0504-z
Milovanov, R., & Tervaniemi, M. (2011). The Interplay between Musical and Linguistic Aptitudes: A Review. Frontiers in Psychology, 2, 321. http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00321
Wetter, O. E., Koerner, F., & Schwaninger, A. (2009). Does musical training improve school performance? Instructional Science, 37(4), 365-374. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11251-008-9052-y