Martha Stollberg Childbirth Educator

January 26, 2010

Your toddler is sitting on the kitchen floor humming to himself and making more noise than you thought possible with two wooden spoons and a saucepan. While it may seem like noise to you, you might want to consider that, to your child, this activity is experimentation in music. His little brain is being benefited, even as yours begins to throb.

In the past 10 years, research in the impact of music on brain development has grown. Most studies agree that music is a key component in brain development. Children’s brains almost seem hard-wired for music.

The first few years of your baby’s life are crucial to his or her education and brain development. Dr. Laurel Trainor, Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour at McMaster University and Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind states that during these years, “it is suggested that musical training has an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention.”

Even though experts vary in their opinion of how it is best carried out, they agree that exposing children to music is incredibly beneficial. Be it building performance skills through lessons in singing, dancing and playing music, or just experiencing music in sensory, regimented or improvisational ways, the benefits of music are clear. Music can:

• Improve memory, literacy, visuo-spatial processing, mathematical reasoning and IQ
• Enhance cognitive, motor and social development
• Foster creativity and a sense of belonging, community and collaboration with others 
• Develop neural networks connected with mood, social skills, cultural and aesthetic awareness, and self-discipline

Music lessons help develop a child’s attention span and problem-solving abilities. Also, musical training often promotes auditory processing, language development, and behavior.

To a child, learning the patience and attention to detail involved in music lessons is likely to have an enhanced ability to focus and pay attention to important things around him or her.

Experts recommend incorporating motion with music in childhood so that multiple senses are engaged as the brain learns about rhythm. Even the simple motion of bouncing a baby to the music’s rhythm can help them compartmentalize and make sense of their surroundings better.

No one can guarantee that music is the key to a child’s future success during his or her developmental and school years. But there’s no downside to exposing them to music and musical education.