Music and learning: piano lessons and reading skills

Being taught music could improve people's reading skills according to research by psychologists at Long Island University, in the U.S. The study of 103 children in two primary schools compared 46 in one school who had already been learning the piano for a year and 57 in another school who did not have formal music lessons. Both the schools taught formal literacy programmes, were in the same area and had pupils from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Both groups had their reading levels assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. The results at the end of the year showed that the music-learning group had a significantly better vocabulary and verbal-sequencing scores than the other group. However, the children learning music had already had two years of lessons before the study started so why were their reading skills not better than the other group then? The authors of the study thought that this might be because:

the tests were first taken after the long summer break and after a summer without music lessons the benefits had worn off for the children in this group

the children in the 'music' group had had two years of tuition; maybe three years are needed before it has any effect on reading skills

the study took place around the age of 7 so maybe there are specific developments in children's brains around this age which are influenced by learning music

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm