Why music helps kids become better learners: Neuromusical educator Anita Collins explains
Why is it when kids play a musical instrument they often perform really well academically? There’s a fascinating answer – and SA is leading the way in capitalising on it.
Education
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The smiles on the faces of these young students leaves no doubt of the classroom fun they are having – but the significance of their simple joy is much more far-reaching.
The youngsters’ cognitive abilities are being extended through music.
And, according to a national expert in the field, South Australia is leading the way when it comes to implementing school-based musical programs to enhance learning.
Canberra-based neuromusical educator Anita Collins says the links between young people learning a musical instrument and improved academic outcomes have long been known.
Dr Collins said this state had embarked on a formal 10-year strategy to use music to “fundamentally shift” how learning happens.
“SA is the one state that is making the biggest and boldest moves in this area,” she said.
“It seems like a simple fix but it will have a profound knock-on effect for a generation of South Australian kids.
“You will see little changes in the first three weeks, three months, six months, 18 months and after that, their brains will be permanently improved from the activities.”
Dr Collins held a webinar earlier this month for about 250 SA primary and early learning educators on music’s role in enhancing learning by making the brain work more effectively, particularly in the space of literacy and language development.
“The brains of musically-trained people look, operate and learn quite differently to non musically-trained people,” she said.
“Musically-trained kids and adults have very high language skills ... they are very good at syntax, they are very good at using new words.
“There is a complex cognitive component to learning music, I describe it as being like a full body workout for the brain.”
Dr Collins said while research had focused on children who learned a musical instrument, exposure to music from an early age also had proven benefits.
“It is about starting every single day with structured musical learning, so it has beat keeping, it has rhythm, echoing – the teacher claps a rhythm and the kids echo it back – lots of singing with a focus on singing in tune,” she said.
“Ideally it should be the start of the day as the students progress into their literacy block and it helps prime their brains and ears for language learning.”
Fulham Gardens Primary School teacher Bianca Moylan said she had been incorporating music since the start of the year and was already seeing benefits in her Year 2/3 class.
“We have definitely noticed the increase in confidence, especially with the some of the quieter students, it also helps with their emotional wellbeing engagement,” the schoolteacher of 13 years said.
“This is just the start, it is exciting to think about the flow-on effects ... I think we will definitely see some huge changes in a couple of years time.”
What parents can do at home
WITH young children, aged seven and under, it is about beat keeping, so doing things such as clapping along together to a piece of music you are listening to on the radio.
SINGING to them, and with them, really important and is also a gorgeous way to connect to your young child.
GIVE them an opportunity to hear and try out different musical instruments as they get older is important. Ask them questions such as, “Which one do you like? Which one feels good to you?”
TAKE an interest in the school’s music education, what instruments are available to learn?
GO to concerts with your children – it doesn’t matter what sort of concert it is, as long as they are being exposed to different music experiences.
PROVIDE an opportunity for them to learn a musical instrument.
MUSIC learning is vital to every child and will help set them up cognitively and musically to do anything they want to in life.
— Dr Anita Collins