Music Spurs Learning

"Music helps kids read" and "Pick up an instrument to strengthen reading and listening skills" were two headlines in Scientific American Mind (May 2014; Mind.ScientificAmerican.com).  Here are the stories:

"Today a symphony of research trumpets the many links among language, reading, and music.  Nina Kraus of Northwestern University has discovered a possible explanation:  the brains of good beat keepers respond to speech more consistently than the brains of people whose toes do not tap in time....

"Because reading ability, in general, relies on making a connection between the sounds of letters and symbols on a page, music provides another avenue into learning.  'Through music, you learn to pay attention to important sounds,' Kraus says.  The inconsistent sound processing shown by the poor beat keepers makes that difficult."

"...Kraus surveyed 44 adults aged 55 to 76 and found that four or more years of musical training in childhood was linked to faster neural responses to speech, even for the older adults who had not picked up an instrument for more than 40 years."

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