Mozart, ShMozart - can learning an
instrument help my child succeed in school?
Music helps cows to produce more milk!
Mozart makes your child cleverer! Great headlines, but how accurate are they
really?
A recent project in seven Newham primary
schools called 'Literacy through Music'* confirms the benefits making music can
have on your child's development. Children advanced their reading age on
average by 8.4 months and in some cases by as much as 18 months!
The children also said that they felt more
included. This confirms results from a German long-term study**, which reported
that children making music together significantly reduced incidents of
bullying, or excluding peers from play.
As a seasoned musician and music teacher I
am not surprised by the findings - making music uses so many parts of brain and
body at once:
using your fine motor skills necessary to
hit the right notes,
listening to the others you are playing
with, working as a team
following and understanding instructions
from the teacher
reading music to sharpen your analytical
skills
Any new skill will boost your brain and
making music even more so - learning an instrument is a complex activity, stimulating
your child intellectually, physically and socially.
Have I mentioned that making music is fun, too? If
your child is not enjoying their lessons, speak to your child's teacher to find
out what you can do together to make it fun.
*
Literacy through Music, a research evaluation of the New London
Orchestra's Literacy through Music Programme, IMERC
** The so-called Bastian Study (after
Prof. Bastian)
