The Effects of Music on Early Childhood Development

For years now there have been publications of research into the merits of music on early childhood and even in the womb development. Many researches on the subject have hypothesised that listening to certain kinds of music and learning instruments can vastly improve the brain development in children and even make them smarter.



From a scientific point of view a lot of the theories can be backed up. It makes sense that there are a lot of skills involved in learning to play an instrument. It requires the understanding of long sections of music, a complex symbolic notation system, and bimanual control of the instrument. It's irrefutable that learning these requires good memory, motor functions and the ability to understand rhythm, timing and a system much like a foreign language. At a young age children's brains are like sponges and to add learning such skills early on could only benefit a child.



Slightly more theoretically based is the belief that hearing complex musical pieces can actually improve a child's intelligence. There have been numerous researches done into this area with interesting results. One such research project resulted in the buzz word ‘Mozart Effect'. It is a widely heard theory that listening to Mozart can make a child smarter. Mozart is regularly used as the prime example because of the complexity of his pieces.



While there is no concrete evidence to support this, there are an abundance of theories about how it may help brain development. Listening to complex, multi instrumental pieces is likely to effect the child's understanding of rhythm and could assist in developing more attentive listening. This in turn could likely improve a child's focus and attention span making it easier for them to absorb information in later life.



Whether there is any real merit to these techniques, it is apparent that giving children an artistic output is beneficial to them. There are a variety of educational companies who strive to provide educational tools for children such as easels for art and various musical instruments which suggest there is strong support for artistic development in early learning. However, if you do decide to get your child a particularly loud instrument, investing in room dividers might be a good idea.



As all parents want the best for their children, these methods will remain popular as they are certainly of some benefit at least.