I just finished reading through this great piece I found in the latest issue of the Scientific American; Music And The Brain.
As a Board Certified Music Therapist, I’ve spent a lot of time reading and learning about how music is processed in your brain, and one thing that has always been of interest to me is the connection between music and language development. According to the article,
“…Music may be the first part of speech that babies learn to reproduce; infants echo the inherent melodies of their native language when they cry, long before they can utter actual words.”
Before we are even able to speak or understand spoken language, we have the ability to make and on some level understand music. Music is innate, and in this way, music becomes inherently essential to and intertwined with our language development. “Many studies suggest that children who are musically trained have stronger cognitive abilities, including better vocabulary, reading skills and sound perception.”
Music is an important part of our earliest development, and there are numerous studies out there suggesting that being involved in functionally learning an instrument, or taking part in music groups even after initial development stages can help improve language skills, in areas such as comprehension, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
I highly recommend you guys check out the article, and forward any questions you have to our team about how Music Therapy can help in areas of language development!
