Does classical music make babies smarter?

Does playing classical music to babies make a difference?

Opinion is divided; but many experts think that it may stimulate the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development.
It's known as the Mozart Effect, a theory which is credited with boosting IQ, improving health, strengthening family ties and even producing the occasional child prodigy.
Numerous studies conclude that playing music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel. And research suggests it can stimulate the brain's alpha waves, creating a feeling of calm; a recent study of premature infants found that they were soothed by the music.
In Florida, all state-funded pre-schools are required to play classical music by law, and many US hospitals give classical CDs to new mums.
In the UK, many parents have also embraced the theory, with Classic FM's Music for Babies CD enjoying several weeks at the top of the classical charts earlier this year.

Baby proms

And this week Sound Beginnings, a series of concerts aimed at the very young, begins in Hampshire. It's the brainchild of Peter and Juliet Kindersley, who founded the Dorling Kindersley publishing empire. Both are strong believers in the power of classical music.
"Just as it's vitally important to eat good-quality food right from the start, so we are deeply affected by the music we hear from a very early age, even in the womb," Peter Kindersley says.
Sound Beginnings - and a planned "baby prom" next year - came about as babies and toddlers are rarely welcome in concert halls.
Professor Paul Robertson, a leading expert in the field, says it's important the best music is made available to babies at the earliest possible stage of their growth.
"There is compelling scientific evidence that the music we hear at the earliest ages significantly affects the way our neurological pathways are laid down during development."

Chill out

Beanbags will be provided to make the setting more relaxed and the pieces - including compositions by Mozart, Schumann and Ravel - have been selected to benefit the wellbeing of babies, toddlers and parents.
It has also been geared towards pregnant women, as a foetus responds to sound from about 24 weeks and learns familiar noises it will recognise after birth, such as music its parents have listened to repeatedly.
Violinist Paul Robertson, the presenter of Channel 4's Music and the Mind, and the acclaimed Russian concert pianist Mikhail Kazakevich will present the concerts, the first of which will be held at the Newbury Spring Festival in Hampshire on Thursday.
Sound Beginnings will then travel to the London Symphony Orchestra's St Luke's venue next month and tour the country later in the year. A symposia, bringing together the latest scientific research into the effects of music on development and wellbeing, is also planned for June.

By Denise Winterman BBC News Magazine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4558507.stm

Building Baby's Brain:The Role of Music

"Researchers believe that musical trainingactually creates new pathways in the brain."

Music has a powerful effect on our emotions. Parents know that a quiet, gentle lullaby can soothe a fussy baby. And a majestic chorus can make us swell with excitement. But music also can affect the way we think.
In recent years, we have learned a lot about how the brain develops. Babies are born with billions of brain cells. During the first years of life, those brain cells form connections with other brain cells. Over time, the connections we use regularly become stronger. Children who grow up listening to music develop strong music-related connections.
Some of these music pathways actually affect the way we think. Listening to classical music can improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills

.
Does Music Make Us Smarter?

Not exactly. Music seems to prime our brains for certain kinds of thinking. After listening to classical music, adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Why does this happen? The classical music pathways in our brain are similar to the pathways we use for spatial reasoning. When we listen to classical music, the spatial pathways are turned on and ready to be used.
This priming makes it easier to work a puzzle quickly. But the effect lasts only a short time. Our improved spatial skills fade about an hour after we stop listening to the music.
Learning to play an instrument can have longer-lasting effects on spatial reasoning, however. In several studies, children who took piano lessons for six months improved their ability to work puzzles and solve other spatial tasks by as much as 30 percent.

Why does playing an instrument make such a difference?

Researchers believe that musical training creates new pathways in the brain.


Why Classical Music?

The music most people call classical--works by composers such as Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart--is different from music such as rock and country. Classical music has a more complex musical structure. Babies as young as 3 months can pick out that structure and even recognize classical music selections they have heard before.
Researchers think the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music.
This doesn‘t mean that other types of music aren‘t good. Listening to any kind of music helps build music-related pathways in the brain. And music can have positive effects on our moods that may make learning easier.


What Can You Do?

Parents and child-care providers can help nurture children‘s love of music beginning in infancy. Here are some ideas:

• Play music for your baby. Expose your baby to many different musical selections of various styles. If you play an instrument, practice when your baby is nearby. But keep the volume moderate. Loud music can damage a baby's hearing.
  
• Sing to your baby. It doesn‘t matter how well you sing! Hearing your voice helps your baby begin to learn language. Babies love the patterns and rhythms of songs. And even young babies can recognize specific melodies once they‘ve heard them.
  
• Sing with your child. As children grow, they enjoy singing with you. And setting words to music actually helps the brain learn them more quickly and retain them longer. That‘s why we remember the lyrics of songs we sang as children, even if we haven‘t heard them in years.
  
• Start music lessons early. If you want your child to learn an instrument, you don‘t need to wait until elementary school to begin lessons. Young children‘s developing brains are equipped to learn music. Most four- and five-year-olds enjoy making music and can learn the basics of some instruments. And starting lessons early helps children build a lifelong love of music.
  
• Encourage your child‘s school to teach music. Singing helps stimulate the brain, at least briefly. Over time, music education as a part of school can help build skills such as coordination and creativity. And learning music helps your child become a well-rounded person.

Diane Bales, Ph.D.Assistant Professor and Human Development Specialist,Department of Child and Family Development

http://www.fcs.uga.edu/pubs/current/FACS01-7.html