Butterfly Music 1.78

What parents should know:

Kids are ready to begin making music even earlier than you may think. Before then, there are benefits to just listening. Hearing music stimulates the mind, improves the mood and brings people together. A study at the University of California at Irvine demonstrated that young kids who participated in music instruction showed dramatic enhancements in abstract reasoning skills.

In fact, researchers have found neural firing patterns that suggest that music may hold the key to higher brain function.Research at McGill University in Montreal, Canada showed that grade-school kids who took music lessons scored higher on tests of general and spatial cognitive development, the abilities that
form the basis for performance in math and engineering.

Kids who make music have been shown to get along better with classmates and have fewer discipline problems. More of them get into their preferred colleges, too.

Playing a musical instrument strengthens eye-hand coordination and fine motor skills, and kids who study an instrument learn a lot about discipline, dedication and the rewards of hard work.

Just listening to music can fill a home with joy and add an extra dimension to kids’ lives. People who make their own music enjoy these benefits many times over.