Does Music Training Improve Intelligence in Children?

Does music training improve intelligence in children?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

The research on the impact of music training on children’s intelligence and cognitive development presents a mixed picture. While there are modest improvements in specific cognitive areas such as verbal intelligence and memory, the overall effect on general cognitive and academic skills is limited. The benefits of music training are more pronounced in studies with less rigorous designs, and long-term training can lead to neurophysiological changes that support language skills. However, the relationship between music training and broader cognitive abilities, including executive function, remains complex and warrants further investigation.

The potential impact of music training on children’s intelligence and cognitive development has been a topic of considerable interest and debate. Researchers have explored whether engaging in music lessons can lead to improvements in various cognitive and academic skills, including general intelligence, memory, and language abilities.

Key Insights

• Limited Overall Impact on Cognitive and Academic Skills:
  • Meta-analyses indicate that music training has a small overall effect on cognitive and academic skills, with effect sizes being modest and often influenced by study design quality1 2.
• Specific Cognitive Improvements:
  • Some studies report small but significant improvements in specific cognitive areas such as verbal intelligence and memory-related outcomes following music training1 4.
• Influence of Study Design:
  • The positive effects of music training are often observed in studies with less rigorous designs, such as those without random allocation of participants or using non-active control groups2.
• Neurophysiological Changes:
  • Long-term music training can lead to enhanced neural processing of speech sounds, particularly in at-risk children, suggesting improvements in auditory processing that may support language skills6 7.
• Transfer to Language and Literacy Skills:
  • Music training has been associated with improvements in phonological awareness and pitch discrimination in speech, which are important for literacy development5 8.
• IQ and Executive Function:
  • Some studies find that children with music training exhibit higher IQ scores compared to their untrained peers, although the relationship between music training and executive function remains unclear3 9.
• Brain Plasticity:
  • Evidence from longitudinal studies suggests that music training can induce brain plasticity, leading to changes in neural activation patterns associated with cognitive tasks7 8 10.

Does music training improve intelligence in children?

Glenn Schellenberg has answered Unlikely

An expert from University of Toronto in Psychology, Cognitive Science

Smarter kids tend to take music lessons but the evidence for the other causal direction is extremely weak.