Engagement with music is one of the best ways to encourage the development of your child’s brain. It has the ability to stimulate many areas in your child’s brain simultaneously – the area associated with memory, language, hearing, and other important sensory information are all working at the same time when a child is engaging in a musical activity. That and the fact that children all over the world absolutely love music make it an excellent activity to train their brains in a motivational and fun manner.
We are going to take a look at some of the ways Music Education helps with the development of your child’s brain so that you can understand exactly why it is so good for your child to engage in musical activities.
Why Is Being A Musician Good For The Brain
First off, it is important to understand that engaging in musical activity has a positive impact on the structure and functioning of the brain. It also encourages the improvement of long term memory building, especially for the people that start off at a very young age.
Musicians tend to have more attentive minds. While brain puzzles are very good at stimulating brain activity as well, they focus on certain aspects of the brain. Playing an instrument is a more complex experience which is a lot richer in terms of the involvement of different parts of the brain.
Brain scans have been able to identify the differences between the brains of musicians and non-musicians. The corpus callosum – the nerves connecting both sides of the brain – are actually a lot denser in musicians as compared to non-musicians. The scans have also shown that the areas of the brain which determine body movement, hearing, and visuospatial abilities are much larger in musicians in comparison to people who don’t play music.
How Musical Education Strengthens Brain Development
There are several ways in music education helps with the development of a child’s brain.
1.Strengthens memory and reading skills:
The Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University has conducted studies which indicate that musical training strengthens a child’s ability to make memories and improve the reading skills. This is because these two abilities are related to the common neural and cognitive mechanisms involved with musical abilities.
2.Process several things simultaneously:
Playing music stimulates several parts of the brain to work in tandem. The use of multiple senses at the same time enables the child’s brain to develop better multi-sensory skills.
3.Improves executive functions of the brain:
Musical training improves the executive functions of the brain. The executive functions are all critical tasks for the brain like processing and retaining information, the ability to control behavior, problem-solving and the process of making anything creative.
Final Thoughts
These are just some of the benefits of musical education for your child. We hope you understand the massive impact that this universal form of art can make for the development of your child’s brain and improve the quality of life that your child will live.