Musical Training Improves Children’s Verbal Intelligence Significantly, Study Says

If your child is a fan of children’s programs which involve a lot of music, singing and dancing, then you’ll be glad to find out the results of a recent study on the benefits of musical training on children’s verbal intelligence.

A study led by Dr. Sylvain Moreno from York University, now with Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute (RRI), published in the journal Psychological Science experimented with 48 children between four to six years old, who were pre-tested for spatial and verbal intelligence.

These children were divided into two groups. One group received a training method involving music-based, cognitive training using a mix of perceptual, motor, cognitive tasks as well as training on melody, pitch, rhythm and other music-related concepts.

The other group received a visual art-type of training, employing visual and spatial skills touching on the concepts of size, shape, color, dimension, perspective and more.

These two learning methods were projected to a classroom wall with colorful animated cartoon characters delivering the lesson. The subjects received the lessons twice a day, one hour per session, over a 20-day time frame.

Using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, the researchers tested once again the children’s verbal and spatial intelligence and also performed brain imaging via electroencephalography (EEG) to measure the kids’ brain activity.