“As a follow-up, my children both took up two instruments and are studying for grade one theory, definitely benefiting from Moosicology.”
Saskia
“As a follow-up, my children both took up two instruments and are studying for grade one theory, definitely benefiting from Moosicology.”
Saskia
Effects of Music Training on Inhibitory Control and Associated Neural Networks in School-Aged Children: A Longitudinal Study (2019)
Inhibitory control, the ability to suppress an immediate dominant response, has been shown to predict academic and career success, social emotional wellbeing, wealth, and physical health. Learning to play a musical instrument engages various sensorimotor processes and draws on cognitive capacities including inhibition and task switching. While music training has been shown to benefit cognitive and language skills.
This passage explores inhibitory control, a key component of executive function tied to the brain’s prefrontal cortex. Inhibitory control helps suppress automatic responses, improving focus and decision-making, which is linked to areas such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and inferior frontal gyrus. Studies show that strong inhibitory control correlates with academic and career success, better social emotional health, and lower risks of substance abuse and physical health issues.
The passage reviews how programs that enhance inhibitory control (like mindfulness, exercise, and music training) improve these skills, especially in children. Some research points to short-term exercise, martial arts, and classroom-based programs helping develop inhibitory control. More recently, music training has been examined for its role in improving this function.
However, studies on the effects of music training on inhibitory control have produced mixed results, both for adults and children. While some studies found that musicians showed improved reaction times in tasks that require inhibition, others did not find significant differences. Various factors may explain these inconsistent results, such as differing definitions of “musician” and the type of music training programs. The need for studies with more socio-economic and cultural diversity is also emphasized.
The current study aims to investigate the long-term effects of music training on inhibitory control in children, comparing those with music training to those involved in sports and those without any structured extracurricular activity. The study hypothesised that music-trained children will show greater behavioural and neural improvements in inhibitory control than other groups.
This study investigated the impact of group-based music training on inhibitory skills in children from under-resourced communities, using a four-year longitudinal design. It compared children involved in music training with those in sports and a control group (no structured after-school program). Children’s inhibitory control was assessed using tasks like delayed gratification and the Flanker task, both inside and outside an MRI scanner.
Key findings include:
This study suggests that music training promotes earlier development of inhibitory control, possibly due to parallels with musical practice (example: error monitoring and attention to detail). Interestingly the correlation with the high percentage of bilingual children in the study, suggests that both music training and bilingualism independently contribute to enhanced inhibitory skills.
A limitation was the decrease in sample size over the four years, and the study wasn’t randomised, so pre-existing differences between groups might have influenced the results. Despite this, the study offers evidence of music training’s modest but positive effects on inhibitory control in children from underserved communities.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.01080/full
There is a growing body of research suggesting that exposure to music in the early years can have positive effects on brain development in various ways. Here are some key findings from scientific studies:
It’s important to note that the benefits of early years music are often intertwined with the quality and nature of the musical experiences provided. Positive, engaging, and interactive musical activities tend to yield more significant developmental benefits. Additionally, individual responses to music can vary, and not all children may respond in the same way.
Parents, caregivers, and educators can play a crucial role in promoting positive musical experiences for children by incorporating music into daily routines, providing access to a variety of musical genres, and encouraging active participation in musical activities.
There’s a insightful and comprehensive article that our founder was interviewed in by the Telegraph titled ‘Can music make your child cleverer?’
The article discusses our founders book “The Music Miracle – the scientific secret to unlocking your child’s full potential” and studies on music and children’s brain development. The article also features some tips (on how to engage musically with your child) from The Grown-Up’s Guide of the Moosicology Package.
Still, I genuinely think it’s a fabulous read, as the writer has done a great bit of research to make one fact-packed and nicely written article! Furthermore, the benefits of music for children clearly need this kind of national exposure: us parents need to be more informed on how crucial music is for babies and children. I very nearly missed this opportunity myself with my son six years ago – not wanting to be a ‘pushy parent’, or ‘living my music dreams through my son’, I hesitated in introducing my peculiar obsession with music to him – so it was just as well I came across one study when he was just a few months old (in the wonderful parenting book What Every Parent Needs to Know by Margot Sunderland) – and when I started to look for more information, a whole new world opened up in scientific journals; a wealth of information on how music benefits the brain development of children.
Without further ado, here’s a snippet of the article, which you can read in full at The Telegraph site:
“Liisa Henriksson-Macaulay, 30, Finnish author of The Music Miracle, believes that she has found the key to enhancing a child’s development. “In Finland, most children go to a music playschool until the age of seven,” she says. “They teach the children music in a very child-centred way. The benefits of this are so amazing that when I moved to Britain, I wanted to bring them to British children.”
According to the PISA international league tables, Finnish children are 14 places above Britain in maths, sixth in the world in reading, and fifth in science. The country has become something of a cause celebre among educational experts, who have long searched for the secret of this success.
Henriksson-Macaulay’s six-year-old son, Toivo, has been having piano lessons since he was four. She also has music sessions with him for half-an-hour a week, and for Christmas she gave him a drum kit. “He is exposed to music of all different types,” she says.
In her book, she concludes that musical practice can produce nothing short of a “a full-scale brain upgrade”. She has also developed a system of music tuition called Moosicology, which is intended to be used by parents to maximise the benefits to their child’s development.
According to a collation of peer-reviewed studies quoted in the book, benefits of early engagement with music include improved performance in mathematics and languages; higher levels of IQ; better emotional fluency; greater self-esteem; a more powerful memory; and physical health and fitness.
Such elaborate claims might sound far-fetched, especially as they are made by a non-scientist. But the book has been verified by a number of leading academics at the Institute of Education and elsewhere.
For babies up to the age of one, Henriksson-Macaulay says, it is best to play them a range of music, including major and minor keys, and different time signatures, rhythms and scales. “In Britain, children’s songs are usually in 4/4 time, and in the major key,” she explains. “That’s a bit like speaking to kids only in verbs. For the full benefits, children need a variety of music.”
She suggests singing and clapping games for children under the age of four, and for those aged between five and seven, she recommends introducing instruments.
“The most dramatic benefits happen before the age of seven or eight,” she says. “But it is important not to create a hothouse environment, or there will be a connection between music and stress.” ”
Click here to read the full article – including what Alex James from Blur and Susan Hallam from the Institute of Education have to say about the meaning of music for child development!
See Your child thrive Find out how music can positively affected your Childs development by reading thousands of studies compiled by our founder in a fascinating book Music Miracle:
