The
Music lessons may open mind to
math,
science
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By Marilyn Elias |
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|
LOS ANGELES – Parents take heart: If weekly music lessons
show no sign of turning your kid into a young Leonard Bernstein, they could
be stoking the talents of a future Marie Curie or Galileo. Just 15 minutes a
week of private keyboard instruction, along with group singing at pre-school,
dramatically improve a kind of intelligence needed for high-level math and
science, suggests a new study. Music lessons
appear to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new neural
bridges needed for good spatial reasoning, says psychologist Frances Rauscher
of University of California-Irvine. “Music
instruction can improve a child’s spatial intelligence for long periods of
time – perhaps permanently,” |
Rauscher told the American Psychological Association
meeting here. Her study
compared 19 pre-schoolers who took the lessons and 14 classmates enrolled in
no special music programs. After eight months, she found: ·
A 46% boost in spatial IQs for the young
musicians. ·
6% improvement for children not taught music “If parents can’t afford lessons, they
should at least buy a musical keyboard … or sing regularly with their kids
and involve them in musical activities,” Rauscher says. She’s next going to test grade-schoolers.
“If we can show it enhances spatial IQ in primary kids, this is a very
powerful method to assure that every child reaches his or her potential in
math and science,” Rauscher says. |
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