Music Helps To Create Smarter Children
Almost every day, neuroscientists are providing clear evidences
that music has a positive effect on children's brain
development.
Modern brain imaging technologies such as MRI and PET brain scan
allow scientists to see which part of our brain comes alive
during certain type of activities and which parts are affected
by different type of stimulus. Scientists can now bereave the
brain in the process of development. And there is a common
consensus that environment play a very significant influence on
children brain development and their destiny.
Throughout the early years of your child's life (as early as
when he was in your body), his brain is irrevocably affected by
his surroundings. The things he sees, hears, touches and
experiences not only affect his general development but more
importantly how his brain is wired. At birth, a child's brain is
in a stage of constant growing and developing. Most of his
hundred billion neurons are not yet connected into network. As
he interacts with his parents and other care givers and explore
the world through his senses, thousands of neuron connection
known as synapses are formed. By the time he is 6 to 7 years
old, trillions of such connection are created. Each single
neuron in his brain may be connected to as many as fifteen
thousand other neurons, forming an extremely complex network
neuron pathways. If these synapses are used repeatedly in your
child daily life, they are reinforced and become part of his
brain's permanent circuitry. But if they are not used repeatedly
of often enough, his will lose them completely.
A high percentage of environment input is provided through the
ears, And there are clear evidence that music plays a crucial
role in the process of wiring your young child's brain. As your
child is born and progresses through the years, music help to
enhance his physiology, his intelligence and his behaviors. such
effects are real and can be measured.
Here are some of the finding on how music affect your child's
brain and his development:
- Music can calm or stimulate the movement and heart rate of a
baby in the womb,
- Premature infants who listen to classical music in their
intensive care units gain more weight, leave the hospital
earlier and have a better chance of survival.
- Your children who receive regular music training show better
motor skills, math ability and reading performance than hose who
don't.
- Secondary and high school students who sing or play musical
instruments score up to 52 points higher on SAT tests than those
who do not.
- Pre-university students who listen to Mozart's Sonata for Two
Piano in D Major tend to score higher on the spatial-temporal
portion of IQ tests immediately afterward.
Adult musicians' brain generally exhibit more brainwaves
(measure with EEG) coherence than those or non-musicians - and
even differ anatomically in cases when the musicians began their
training before age seven.
It is so amazing to know that music and rhythmic verbal sounds
can have such a powerful effect of human mind and body. When you
use music wisely on your child, it not only help to create a
healthy and stimulating sound world for your family but it also
has a very profound effect on your child's growth and
development.