How Music Can Make Your Child a Better Reader

"Did you know...? A study on the 'Profile of SAT and Achievement Test Takers and the College Board' revealed that high school music students score higher on SAT's in both verbal and math than their peers, AND in 2001, SAT takers with music performance experience scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion and 41 points higher on the math portion of the test than students with no musical performance experience".

There is a wealth of research that shows the connection between music and the brain. Dr. Frank Wilson, Neurologist,(as quoted in 'Teaching with the Brain Mind' by Shirley Handy) stated that "UCLA brain scan studies indicated that music more fully involves integrated brain function in both hemispheres than any other activity the researchers studied".

Gottfried Schlag and Collegues from Harvard Medical School (also as cited in Shirley Handy's handbook, 'Teaching with the Brain in Mind') found that "musicians have larger left temporal lobes than non-musicians. The corpus callosum (the 'freeway' connecting the left and right hemispheres) and right motor cortex are larger in those starting their musical training before age 7."

Handy's book also quotes a study (previously reported in "Educational Psychology. 13, 1993) which says that there is a relationship beween reading ability and sound discrimination. There was a strong correlation between how well children could read and how well they could determine pitch.

You might be wondering how you can use these findings to make your child a better reader and overall student. Of course, there is formal early music training such as piano lessons and Suzuki violin training, but it is also very simple to incorporate music into your child's life on a daily basis.

Singing songs with your child is a good way to start. The songs need to be repetitive, interesting to the child, have an easy beat to sing to, and should be a song you also like so that you can handle singing it over and over (and over and over AND OVER) with your child.

During the first year of life, babies respond to soothing music and their mother's voice so sing to them often. If you can't carry a tune, you can find recorded music for your baby. Toys that make noise should be given to babies to pique their curiosity about sound. (Yes, these toys will give you a headache, but remember that your baby is "learning".)

During the preschool years, children have the ability to move to sound - dancing, marching, clapping and swaying to the beat. At 2 to 4 years, they are ready to sing with the songs, increasing their vocabularies and memories.

When choosing songs to sing, a good guideline, according to Shirley Handy, is this: "The younger the children or lower their language level, the more controlled the pattern of songs we choose for reading instruction needs to be".

Here are some suggested songs for preschoolers:

5 Little Monkeys (Jumping on the Bed)
Down by the Bay
Eency, Weency Spider
Wheels on the Bus
A-Hunting We Will Go

For more suggestions, go to: http://www.lanterntree.com/nurseryrhymes/nurseryrhymeindex.html

Note that these songs include repeating verses/choruses and actions for movement and interest.

At four to five years, children begin to develop rhythm. Experiences with drums, shakers, tambourines, clappers, etc., will enhance their musical experiences. In addition to singing children's songs, they should also be exposed to classical music.

At six to nine years of age children can distinguish between different sounds. Music perception also develops at this time. Your child be given the opportunity to hear music in a variety of styles. This is also the time in their life when they are learning to distinguish between the sound of a "d" and the sound of "p", etc., during reading class. Strong auditory discrimination skills will give them a "leg up" as they tackle the task of learning to read.

Rich music experiences can help a child develop his or her coordination, sense of pitch, auditory discrimination, memory, vocabulary, attention span, reading readiness, and general intellectual development.

While it was once thought that the smart kids took music classes, the new wisdom is that kids are smart because they took music classes.

Sources:

Teaching with the Brain in Mind: The Importance of Music, Movement, Rhythm and Rhyme by Shirley Handy; copyright 1994; National Education Network, Hilmar, California.
(www.n-e-n.com)
http://www.lanterntree.com/nurseryrhymes/nurseryrhymeindex.html