Archive for the ‘baby music’ tag
ECE Brain Research receives Grammy Funding
So did Bruce Springsteen, Count Basie and k.d. lang.
Now Laurel Trainor has a Grammy award, too.
Hers is not the traditional, gold-plated, miniature gramophone, but a cheque in the amount of $39,800. And she didn’t have to produce a movie soundtrack or sing an outstanding song to get it.
The director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind is one of only 22 successful applicants for a 2008 grant from the Grammy Foundation in California, which received 102 applications for a share of $600,000 in disbursements.
She and her research team will use the money to finance a study of how — or whether — babies benefit from early music education. The project is unique because it involves a younger than usual study group — six-month-old infants — and their parents, and will not be conducted in the precisely controlled environment of Mac’s auditory labs.
Starting in the fall, Trainor’s team, which includes research partner and PhD student David Gerry, will recruit 80 babies from the Wesley Ontario Early Years Centre and Today’s Family Ontario Early Years Centre, which serve the city’s west and Mountain ridings respectively.
After a round of pre-testing, they will start taking weekly classes at their centres with a Suzuki early childhood education teacher. When the babies reach the ripe old age of one, the lessons will end and the “students” will be retested.
Trainor hopes to establish that exposing them to Suzuki ECE music lessons can improve their perceptual, cognitive and social development.
There are no expectations of baby virtuosos tinkling the ivories or tootling the flute.
The Suzuki ECE program, developed 15 years ago by Canadian Dorothy Jones, uses percussion instruments, nursery rhymes, finger play, action songs and storytelling to help little people develop such skills as rhythm, pitch, memory, observation, listening, fine and gross motor co-ordination.
“The younger children don’t play violins,” smiles Trainor, a professor in Mac’s department of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. “There’s a lot of singing, clapping, xylophones.”
The project began when Today’s Family staff contacted the Music and the Mind institute for advice on setting up music programs for their young charges.
Trainor and Gerry saw a perfect opportunity for testing the theory that music training at a very early age could have long-lasting benefits. Although that hypothesis in itself is not news, the researchers wanted to reach a population that wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to music lessons, especially expensive classes such as Suzuki.
After six months, Trainor’s team will use a variety of methods to measure the difference between infants who were in the study and those who weren’t.
While all of the teaching and some of the testing will be conducted in the class environment, babies will have to attend Trainor’s lab at Mac for an electroencephalogram (EEG). They’ll be outfitted with a fetching net bonnet consisting of 128 electrodes, which are attached to the scalp to record brain activity.
The results will show whether the babies have developed an aesthetic response that allows them to distinguish pleasant musical sounds from discordant ones, and melodies played with no expression from those with variations in pitch, timing and expression.
Trainor plans to gauge the infants’ cognitive development by looking at their early language skills.
“I suspect that language development will be accelerated in kids with music training,” says Trainor, who plays principal flute with Symphony Hamilton. “Studies show that music training increases cognitive development in all other areas and also trains the attentional system.”
She’ll also look at the social interactions of the babies and how they are taking cues from each other, observing the structure of activities, and attempting to mimic behaviour.
Laurel Brydges, of Today’s Child, says the centre is “totally excited” about the partnership with Trainor’s researchers. The Ontario Early Years Centres are all about providing children with the best opportunities for life, she says, and the Suzuki training will only enhance their healthy development.
“The more assets a child has, the more they stay out of trouble,” says Brydges. “It’s going to be interesting.”
Brydges says she expects the project will show there is a big difference when an infant receives live music training from a professional instructor as opposed to just listening to a tape.
If the findings support Trainor’s hypothesis, she will try to get ongoing government and private support to keep the project going, ideally expanding it to older children and poor neighbourhoods.
The Grammy Foundation, part of whose mandate is music education, “is a perfect fit,” says Trainor, but $40,000 is the maximum grant it bestows.
“We sure could have used more, but we’ll manage. If we find (the results) quite beneficial, we will look for donors to keep it going independent of research.”
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Benefits of Preschool Music
Research Studies Point to the Benefits of Preschool Music Programs
By Groshan Fabiola
Many different research studies lead to the same conclusion – preschool music programs help to build a solid foundation for lifelong learning and a host of other beneficial developments in an individual’s brain. Programs such as the Kindermusik curriculum have been shown to help children develop early literacy and language skills, acquire reasoning and early math skills, increase self control and cultivate a lifelong music appreciation. All of these skills that are made possible through preschool educational music can contribute to a greater chance of success and personal fulfillment in life.
One study that points to the benefits of preschool music programs is The Mozart Effect by Don Campbell. During this study, Mr. Campbell traced neurological development during childhood. He found that before any major spurt of neural integration in the brain during the elementary school years, learning occurred through movement and quick emotional associations. Since educational programs such as the Kindermusik curriculum include a great deal of music and movement, such programs are clearly valuable during the youngest years of a child’s life.
Campbell’s found that the brain has begun to fuse with the body through marching, dancing, and developing a sense of physical rhythm by the tender age of two. When children are exposed to preschool educational music they are able to better develop the neural coding that will assist them throughout their lives. And while music and movement for children and adults is always beneficial at any age, it is clear that starting early and getting kids into music when they are just toddlers will provide the most benefits.
The benefits of music and movement for children have been proven scientifically, but any parent can tell just from the light in their child’s eyes that it is doing something positive. Having music around the house, in the car and in the classroom is fun and educational for everyone.
Music for Babies
Baby Music Class Boosts Intelligence
By Groshan Fabiola
You may be surprised at the myriad of benefits that a music class for kids has to offer. At first glance, it might seem like any other extracurricular activity; a fun break from the day for your child, and some much needed respite for you, as well! However, Kindermusik is not like most activities for children. It is so much more than just keeping them busy during the day, and parents participate, as well.
Before you write off baby music class as just another modern gimmick, consider the facts: from the time a child is born until about age seven, the brain is developing with enormous leaps and bounds every day. New synapses are being created with ease, which means that this is the best time for a child to learn just about anything! Often, the things that are learned at this time in a child’s life become deeply rooted in the mental, psychological and emotional makeup of the brain. Having a regularly scheduled time for music on a daily and weekly basis helps a child build a variety of skill sets that parents may not even be aware of. It makes sense that strength in pattern cognition and rhythm are developed by musical exposure. However, did you know that self-disciplinary skills such as self-control and concentration are improved with a toddler music class? Also, literary capacity is greatly affected by musical exposure. Numerous studies show that a child’s ability to read, write and abstractly reason are improved by music classes. In addition, they are far more likely to excel in mathematics and reasoning. Really, in many ways, music class for kids bolster every aspect of intelligence and self-confidence in a child. Even social skills are strengthened by the addition of music.
You may think that all of this is wonderful, but speculate as to why parents have to be included in Kindermusik classes. The reasons are simple: additional studies show that with parent involvement and encouragement, a child has even more of a capacity to develope high intelligence and confidence. This is generally true for a child coming from any poverty level, ethnic background or a single-parent household. With parent participation, a child can be encouraged and stimulated by conversation about what he or she has learned, even after class has ended. With the help of CD’s and books supplementing music classes, parents can refresh a child’s memory and further learning outside the classroom. Discussions and mutual participation in Kindermusik can be great bonding time.
Music and Prenatal Behaviour
In Lessons of the Music Womb, Norman M. Weinberger looks at the complex abilities of children and infants to perceive and respond to basic components of music. In his article it becomes evident that the nervous system and brain can process music well before birth. As he puts it: “ In short, the womb appears to be the first concert hall.”
The section on Prenatal Behavior in his article is copied for your convenience.
Prenatal Behavior
Regarding the beginning of hearing, the ear starts to develop only a few weeks after conception. However, the auditory system of the brain really doesn’t function well, if at all, before about the 26th week, that is at the beginning of the last trimester of pregnancy. 5 As to the second question, sound does reach the in utero ear, but it is greatly distorted because liquid and tissue surround the fetus. There is relatively little effect on sounds below about middle C on the piano, but an increasing reduction in sound levels with higher notes. As most instruments have harmonics about this frequency, there is a change in timbre. Those instruments having mainly high notes are affected most, such as the trumpet. On the other hand, melody and rhythm are not much altered. In fact, in utero recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony yielded a clearly identifiable sound image.6 Thus, while sounds are greatly altered as they pass from the outside world to the ear of the fetus, there is more than sufficient musical stimulation to be heard in the womb.
What are the responses to music before birth? They consist mainly of body movements and changes in heart rate. Most sounds cause a short-lasting slowing of heart rate, as part of a “What is it?” response. Very loud sounds produce increases in heart rate, often with a startle response.7 Not only do sounds produce movement and changes in heart rate, but also there is evidence of pre-natal learning. Perhaps the simplest form of learning is habituation, which is learning to stop paying attention to repeated sounds that become boring. If a novel stimulus is substituted, infants will respond to it, showing they noticed the change. During the last trimester of pregnancy, the fetus is clearly capable of habituating to a repeated stimulus applied to the mother’s abdomen, and also responding again when the stimulus is changed.8
More complex learning can also occur before birth. In one study, the abdomen received a gentle vibratory stimulus that did not itself produce fetal responses; this was followed by a loud sound that did provoke movement. After several paired presentations, the subjects responded to the gentle vibration, showing that they anticipated receiving the loud sound.9 That this basic type of association can be learned before birth suggests considerable capacity of the fetus to acquire information and remember events.
You can read the full article on Lessons of the Music Womb here