Do Music Lessons at a Very Young Age Help Students Academically later on in School?

One of the things that parents of young children frequently ask themselves is: What can I do to make sure my children are as successful as possible at school and university? Is there, in fact, anything I can do? Children's brains develop very rapidly during the first few years of their life, and the environment and so on they are exposed to at this time definitely has an effect on how well they do in later life. An entire industry has, in fact, grown up around the idea that we can, in fact, do things that will help. Hundreds of thousands of "Baby Einstein" books and other items are sold every year. And for a few years it was thought that if young children were exposed to Mozart sonatas it would make them smarter. In addition, software called "Fast ForWord" was also developed that claimed to give children an advantage when they went to school. Studies eventually showed that most of these things had little effect. But the one thing that was definitely helpful was musical training at an early age. Listening to music was not as effective as some had hoped, but playing and practising a musical instrument at an early age had a definite effect on the developent of the brain. Scientists are still not sure exactly why this is so, but they are in agreement that there is an effect. In fact, it doesn't matter what instrument you play; the piano, violin and guitar all seem to have the same effect. Studies have shown that the key is concentration on the acoustical sounds as they are played. For some reason this helps with the development of language comprehension and in the development of cognitive skills such as memory.

Barry Parker, Ph. D.  author of "Learn form Yesterday, Live for Today, Hope for Tomorrow"