Studies Have Shown That Music Enhances Children’s Overall Development Studies have shown that music enhances children’s overall development, improves their overall academic accomplishments, promotes self-determination, and enriches their personal lives. Prior to and during school, music supports academics through delivering educational materials. Music reinforces children’s reading and mathematics abilities through listening and being involved. Music supports self- determination through participation in musical performances and working with others to remain in school.
Music supplements children personal lives through storing team work, trust, and respect for others. Music influences children to continue to further education which leads to top employment. Academic performance using music was validated through a study named the Mozart Effect. This study examined the connection between music and academic feats. Research performed by Earaches, Shaw, and Katherine (1993) took 36 college students and subjected the group to 10 minutes of Mozart music, then testing; 10 minutes of relaxation, then testing; and then 10 minutes of silence, then testing.
After listening to Mozart, students were found to score eight to nine points higher on an IQ test Earaches, Shaw, & Katherine, 1993). The Mozart Effect study demonstrated the importance of coaxing children to listen to classical music. Inculcating children with the academic benefits of listening and appreciating classical music must begin early. Labeled (1979) reported that children have no preference in the music they listen to early in their life. Situate classical music as part of a child’s musical repertoire to provide a foundation.
It takes constant exposure in a particular area of music to influence a personal preference. If children are not continuously exposed to classical USIA, then they will veer away from it around the ages of 5 and 6. Labeled explained that children gravitate to the popular music of their time as they get older. Children will seek their own independence, and that may cause parents to think that they have become rebellious by rejecting what they believe is right for their children. This is part of children seeking their own way.
The more exposure they have to music, even if it is singing, playing a song, or Just listening daily, the more likely it is that their ability to succeed academically in school will be improved (Labeled, 1979). Music can also be used to teach the basics. Children can be taught the alphabet through the Studies Have Shown That Music Enhances Children’s Overall Development By Bighead standard repetition. In 1973, the American Broadcasting Company (BBC) applied music through songs to teach simple concepts.
Children heard the songs “Conjunction Junction,” “I’m Only a Bill,” or “The Preamble” on Schoolhouse Rock. Those 3-minute Jingles helped many children learn a variety of subjects using music and educationally expressed lyrics. The creator of Schoolhouse Rock, David McCall, noticed that his son knew the lyrics to many popular rock songs, but he was having robbers with multiplication. Grasping his son’s ability to learn using the lyrics in music, McCall developed Schoolhouse Rock. McCall identified that placing academic information with music helped his son with multiplication.
Music not only supplies academic information, it also has the inherent property to strengthen reading skills. Andrews (1997) conducted research on fifth graders by looking at their tested academic achievements after integrating music into a reading program. The study cited that vocal performance along with the text yielded better results in language reading accomplishments. The music positively engaged the student’s attitudes to annunciate words correctly by reading them and singing them out loud (Andrews, 1997).
Prior and Rotor (2009), from Long Island University, tested second-grade students’ reading abilities using a standard reading examination at the completion of 1 school year. The results indicated that the use of music in curricula increased the average reading scores of children participating in a music program. The results also indicated that general memory skills that are correlated with non-musical abilities, such as literacy, verbal memory, visitation processing, mathematics, and ‘Q, were also higher than with the children who did not take music lessons (Prior & Rotor, 2009).
To support overall academics in school, children need to be involved in some type of music program. The Heath study (1998) concluded that students who were involved in music gained a broader range of skills through such performance than they would have through Just playing educational games. Children who were continually involved in a program were more likely to win awards for academic achievement and to read for pleasure. The students also had higher than average educational aspirations; they viewed themselves as bound for college.
It is important for children to be involved in some type of activity, such as music, because it lowers the academic drop- out rate. Research conducted by Mahoney and Cairns (1997) early in the sass confirmed that participating in a music program promoted staying in school. The study monitored 392 students (206 girls, 186 boys) annually from the seventh through the twelfth grade. Sixteen percent (27 girls, 34 boys) were dropouts, defined as failure to complete the eleventh grade. Of those high school students who dropped out, 27 percent did not participate in any activities at all versus 7 percent who did.
Granted, here are many other contributing factors that will cause a child to drop out. Being involved in music significantly increased the possibility that they would stay in school. Participation provides positive influences for schools and social connections (Mahoney & Cairns, 1997). Music enhances the ability to understand fractional mathematics. Through reading notations on music sheets, children know that a whole note requires four beats versus a quarter note that requires one beat in certain musical pieces.
The timing required in using quarter notes, half notes, or sixteenth notes in music not only teaches timing, but also reinforces fractional corded in the Neurological Research of March, 1999, concluded that the students who were learning musical notations scored 100% better when tested on fractions than their counterparts who were Just taught fractions in the conventional way (Grazing, Peterson, & Shaw, 1999). Children’s social skills are developed while playing, singing or dancing in a group, a band or a full orchestra. Children learn through their relationships with other associates with common goals as well as how to work alone.
Playing musical scores can be accomplished only as a team. The Heath study (1998) reported that the camaraderie fostered achievement ethics through articulation in group musical performances. Children learn to accept responsibility for the team because they are held accountable for attending and performing. After a performance, they are often Judged by their peers and proffered criticisms. Those peers’ reviews produce a desire to perform better. Social interactions are played out with the team in planning and organizing a quality performance.
Scheduling meetings with the group offer the opportunity to interface with peers to discuss what to wear, what to play for the program or whether practice sessions are needed. These elaborations tend to lead to students who are academic achievers (Heath, 1998). Children learned to respect the positions that everyone has to play in completing a musical compilation. Healthy team cooperation is required; otherwise, the piece cannot be performed. Music can be used to adopt an attitude of respect for others through songs like A Better You… A Better Me and Expect Respect.
Children learn the characteristics of kindness, as the Branded-Mueller and Alias study (1994) demonstrated. Once students understand what kindness is, they emulate this through peer contact and communication. This can be reinforced only through demonstrated acts of kindness, such as sharing sheet music, helping one another through a difficult musical progression, or informing one another as to how well they perform. Through band practice, children learn to really listen to one another, function together and collaborate with one another (Branded-Mueller, & Alias, 1994).
Learning social skills, such as getting along with others at a young age, is important before children become adults; they are more apt to be successful in future relationships. According to results from the Harris Interactive Poll (2007), taken using ,565 adults across America, 1,928 had participated in some type of music program. Seventy-two percent of participants checked that the habits created in music education equipped them to be better team players, use disciplined approaches in solving problems, and manage confrontations between others more successfully (Harris Interactive, 2007).
Social skills are increased when children continually practice with others over time. The Barman and Weinberg study (1998) concluded that bands go through stages, and these stages begin with the student bonding only with the conductor. Over time, students begin to identify with the band and compete with one another in an effort to belong. They will also test the conductor to check his or her abilities to protect the band. Once the group reaches the final stages of “intimacy,” they then will begin sharing.
It may take time to get to this point, but once achieved, the group will learn to trust and respect one another’s abilities (Barman & Weinberg, 1998). Children’s personal social skills are improved through competent performances, which foster a sense of pride, increase their confidence in playing, they can overcome fears and succeed at something. It is particularly important for a parent to become involved when school-age children take up any form of music training up to the age of 1 1 .
Research conducted by Apparent and McPherson (2002) supports the idea that a child will more than likely continue practicing independently with proper parental nurturing. On the other hand, if a child did not have that parental support, they were more apt to quit, even if the parent or parents later decided to support the child (Apparent & McPherson, 2002). Parental support is crucial; Lampoon’s research (1998) determined that everyone involved with a particular hill learning music needs to be aware, to understand, and to be very careful because people factor in and can influence whether a child continues a life in music.
Children’s positive influences and social interactions come from personal commitment, parental encouragement, teachers’ support and available resources (Lament, 1998). The social skill of learning to trust others is reinforced through interaction with teachers and peers. Children learn that teachers are there for the most part to help them perform better. Trust is required to believe in and not despise small starts and to practice until it is right. The children trust in the teachers’ and peers’ support because perseverance, whether it is painful, tedious, or monotonous, will one day yield positive results in their performance.
The Whitehead study (2001) reported that children who received musical training for at least 50 minutes five times per week performed better academically than those who had less instructional time. Children had a desire to continue to play for and with others in order to share their skills for everyone to appreciate (Whitehead, 2001). Through music children further their education and acquire top vocations. The results of a river recorded by Harris Interactive in 2007 showed that out of 2,565 participants, 83 percent of those with incomes of $1 50,000 or more had some type of musical training.
Seventy percent concluded that music had influence on the level of personal fulfillment. Fifty-one percent of individuals who went on to earn post-graduate degrees agreed that music was extremely influential in their decision to further their studies. While 81 percent had some college background, 86 percent completed college, and 88 percent of the individuals with post-graduate education had music in their education (Harris Interactive, 2007). Music can lead too child obtaining a prominent occupation such as the office of the President of the United States.
Former President John Quince Adams played the flute; Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson played the violin; and Harry S. Truman and Richard M. Nixon played piano. President Warren Harding played every instrument except the trombone and the clarinet; President Franklin Delano Roosevelt played the organ; and President Bill Clinton plays the saxophone. Famous political figures like Benjamin Franklin played the guitar and violin, and Secretary of State Condolences Rice plays the piano. The National Association of Music Education reported that through music, children chances to succeed and attain more wealth are intensified.
