Playing a musical instrument at an early age helps children learn to read better thanks to improved sound perception. This is the conclusion reached by scientists who published the results of their research on the bioRxiv preprint website.
The link between music lessons and reading achievement has been noted before, but now experts have been able to explain the mechanism behind it. According to them, playing an instrument requires complex cognitive training that improves sound perception, memory and concentration — skills directly related to reading.
The study involved 57 children aged five to nine. Half of them began learning to play a musical instrument at least a month before the experiment and practised regularly.
The results showed that child musicians learned to read faster and distinguished sounds and syllables more accurately, even when socio-economic status and general intelligence were taken into account. This means that the effect is specifically related to musical practice and not to external factors.
During the experiment, the scientists played audio stories to the participants and measured their brain activity.
Children who read better showed greater activity in the areas responsible for sound and speech perception. At the same time, in those who played music, this activity was evenly distributed between the hemispheres, while in the others it was concentrated mainly in the left hemisphere.
The researchers note that this distribution is typical for adults, so it can be said that playing an instrument contributes to the ‘maturation’ of the brain and accelerates the development of language skills.
