A new study is showing that regular music instruction actually changes the brain in a way that allows students to reach higher levels of academic success. 
The study was done by Dr. Nina Kraus and her team from Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory. They worked with the award-winning non-profit the Harmony Project in Los Angeles that provides free music training and instruments to at-risk kids in exchange for the promise that they will stay in school. Dr. Kraus studied the children year after year and came to the conclusion that music instruction not only boosts children’s communication skills, attention, and memory, but it may also close the academic gap between rich and poor students. Groundbreaking stuff! And one of the first longitudinal studies of its kind.
You can read more about the study and other related studies in an article posted today in The Atlantic: Using Music to Close the Academic Gap. It’s a fascinating read and worth passing on to all your mommy and daddy friends looking for ways to help their children improve academic performance. Let your child select which instrument they want to play, add a few hours of music training into their week, make sure they have a teacher who keeps the lessons fun but instructive, and sit back to watch the results in other areas of their schooling.
You’re welcome 🙂
