Thursday, May 21, 2009

The arts and brain development: Does music help elementary students with math? Will dancing or painting improve spacial or reading ability? http://ping.fm/bb6u3

1 comment:

scb said...

What a fascinating study! I'd heard of a correlation between musical training and mathematics, but this opens up so much more! I would be very interested to read more about this, and hope you'll post more as the research continues.

At this late stage in my own life (well, I'm not quite over the hill, but I am 52, which is a long way away from elementary school) I don't know if my musical training affected my ability to learn -- but I do know that it greatly honed my powers of concentration, as when one is performing one must keep one's mind on the task at hand, and not allow things in the audience to distract one.

We had an arts high school here in the city for many years -- but sadly, it was closed quite some time ago. And that was, obviously, targeted to older students. I wonder if studies are being done to see how participation in the arts affects the brains of older students?

It also occurs to me to wonder (I'll have to go back and re-read, and bookmark, the article) if they are considering dance along with music, as children who are kinetic learners could benefit from the incorporation of movement into their learning experience.

Oh, Emma -- forgive me for such a long comment! This just fascinates me!