Are you looking for an awesome activity for your kids? Why don't you try music?
You may not be grooming the next Mozart or Chopin-although there's certainly nothing wrong with doing it-just learning and playing music can be very beneficial to the little ones.
In one of the recent studies on the effects of music to the brain, a group of researchers from the College of Medicine of the University of Vermont learned that the skills children acquire from learning and playing music can improve their brain's condition significantly.
For the study, they used the brain images of more than 230 children from 6 to 18 years old. The early data pertaining to them have been obtained from National Institutes of Health, where one of the researchers, Dr. James Hudziak, started the study.
Based on their analyses, those children who learn how to play an instrument experience a different brain development than those who don't. For example, certain areas of the brain's cortex that are responsible for control, memory, and organization are thicker for the music players. They also are more likely to have a more effective control of their emotions.
These results are important since the doctor's earlier studies point out that the thickness and not of the cortex of the brain can determine whether the child is going to be aggressive, depressed, or develop attention and other behavioral issues.
For this reason, the team hopes that children may be given an opportunity to learn music by making related programs many and accessible to them.
This isn't the first time that a research showed the importance of music to the child's development. One of the studies presented in this year's convention of the American Psychological Association, music may be used to help children in poorer communities excel more in the academics.
