Musical training can improve language skills and critical thinking even when kids have reached the teenage years, a new study by Northwestern University researchers uncovered. (Photo : YouTube/PBStringsFoundation)
Joining the school's band other forms of musical training can have a positive effect on brain processes of high school students, according to the scientists/researchers from Northwestern University in the United States.
Studies on how brain functioning of tots may play out when exposed to different environmental elements have been examined by experts before. Based on the new study, it turns out honing musical abilities through training can improve language skills and critical thinking even when kids have reached the teenage years.
In collaboration with other researchers specializing in biological psychology and neurosciences, scientist Nina Kraus, Ph.D. noted how the teenage brain can respond to music in a way that spurs greater cognitive learning.
Kraus and her colleagues surveyed 40 Chicago-area high school freshmen that they followed longitudinally until the students' senior level.
They found that regular instrumental group instruction not only increased brain sensitivity to auditory details but also showed marked improvement in the students' language abilities, an article in the Northwestern University website reported.
Kraus and her team of researchers studied other normal-hearing kids and adults whom they grouped into pre-schoolers, school-aged children, and adults.
The researchers acknowledged the effect of music on the auditory attention of young kids, while affirming the benefits that may come with continued music training well into young adulthood, the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience published.
The study highlights how the principles of neuroscience can continually be used to help young people develop linguistic or communicative skills and critical thinking.
The findings can guide adults to prod teens to take part in musically-oriented activities that can confer lifelong attentional advantages and skills.
Retiring director of the Palm Beach Public Elementary School Strings Orchestra Andy Matzkow, wrote on Facebook and expressed on YouTube that he wanted to veer kids away from technology and introduce them to the power of music, since it can "empower" and "change their lives forever."
