Study Shows Music Training Improves Reading Skills

Findings published by authors Joseph Piro and Camilo Ortiz from Long Island University, USA, show that a multi-year program of music instruction involving rhythmic, tonal, and practical skills gives children better reading skills than their non-musically trained peers. The study was published today in the journal Psychology of Music.

The authors compared two schools, in which children from one school received progressive keyboard training and in the other the children didn’t. The authors wanted to study the literacy development rates of the two groups, because:

“Neural response to music is a widely distributed system within the brain… it would not be unreasonable to expect that some processing networks for music and language behaviors, namely reading, located in both hemispheres of the brain would overlap.”

To ensure that the study was conducted correctly the authors selected two school sites located in the same area and with similar demographic characteristics. The keyboard students had three consecutive years of musical training, whereas the control group received no musical lessons during the same period.

All students were then tested individually on reading skills, and the results showed that the group had notably superior vocabulary and verbal sequencing scores than the non-music-learning students. This evidence supports “educators incorporating a variety of approaches, including music, in their teaching practice in continuing efforts to improve reading achievement in children”.

Age was determined to be an important factor in the study, as the children were undergoing significant brain growth during the developmental period. The authors concluded that not only does music make us smarter, but that “when” a child is taught is just as important as “what”.

Every school system should have an integrated music program. The overwhelming evidence shows that the benefits reaped from including music in our development go beyond the scope of what was previously imagined. And yet, when budgets are trimmed, the Arts are the first to get cut.

Is it time to rethink the structure of our educational system?

Photo via shadyspring.lib.wv.us
Source: Physorg