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Music And Children

The purpose of this paper is to explore the many different aspects of music and its effects on infants and children. I will also discuss how music can be beneficial to them and what parents can do to make music a part of their childrens' lives.
Research has been done for hundreds of years on the effects of classical music on children ("Classical"). As a child is developing in the first few years of life, their brain is essentially being "wired" and shaped by its environment. Research has suggested that music, especially classical music, can have remarkable effects on their minds (Campbell). It has been demonstrated that infants can even respond to music with adult-like capabilities, with the ability to discriminate between differences in frequency, pitch, rhythm and tempo. Babies also respond to stimuli that deliver music as a reward ("Can Classical"). Research also suggests that classical music can have numerous positive effects on children's development and health ("Classical"). For example, certain classical selections are shown to have a positive effect on the intellectual and creative development of infants and children in: increased verbal, emotional and spatial intelligence, improved concentration and memory, enhanced right-brain creative processes, and strengthened intuitive thinking skills ("Babies").
One such example of research began with the work of Dr. Francis Raucher and Dr. Gordon L. Shaw from the University of California (Coff). A study done in 1993 revealed that college student's scores improved on spatial-temporal reasoning tests after listening to Mozart. Later in the 90's, Rauscher and Shaw performed two more studies. These studies indicated that after listening to Mozart, preschool children in Los Angeles and in Wisconsin scored 34%-36% higher on spatial-temporal reasoning tests than children who received no instruction. Since these studies the term "Mozart Effect" has been the buzz phrase that won't disappear ("Classical")....