For centuries humans have been using forms of music as therapy... without realizing it!  The practice of Music Therapy dates as far back as we know music existed... and possibly farther.  Music has been used as a healer, a relaxer, a meditator...  A tune can induce emotions ranging from unabashed joy to deep sorrow and can drive listeners into states of patriotic fervour or religious frenzy or divine ecstasy--to say nothing of its legendary ability to soothe the savage beast. Yet in spite of music's remarkable influence on the human psyche, scientists have spent little time attempting to understand why it possesses such potency. "We tend to think of music as an art or a cultural attribute," notes Robert Zatorre, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, "but it is a complex human behaviour that is as worthy of scientific study as any other."  It's indeed hard to exaggerate the effect music can have on the human brain. 

What seems clear is that the ability to experience and react to music is deeply embedded in the biology of the nervous system. While music tends to be processed mostly in the right hemisphere of the brain, no single set of cells is devoted to the task. Different networks of neurons are activated, depending on whether a person is listening to music or playing an instrument, and whether or not the music involves lyrics. In the never-ending search for cures and treatments that do not involve heavy doses of medication, Music Therapy shines a light.  Music Therapy has often been looked upon as a "Holistic" medicine, making use of a person's inner being, or mental capacities in order to find causes and cures for many ailments.  The world of Medicine now sees that Music Therapy can be used as a "supplement" to traditional remedies as well as, at times, a replacement for pain medication and the like. Music Therapy is thus the controlled use of music to achieve goals that are not musically related.  There are specific goals, and specific means by which these goals are to be met.

Music, by itself is a multisensory experience. Listening, seeing, moving, and feeling are all important in the music education curriculum, making music a natural discipline through which to develop sensory perception and psychomotor skills. Music education, in addition to being a valuable content area of the curriculum in its own right, can also be an aid in developing basic skills in all children. Children actually learn to learn through music activities, since music helps develop skills that are necessary for cognitive, affective, and psychomotor functioning utilized in all areas of the school curriculum. Unlike activities dependent on verbal interaction, music rarely fails to communicate with every child. In addition, because of the flexibility and vast resources available in music, a single activity can include children of widely differing abilities. Thus, music enables every intellect to be challenged, no matter how inhibited. Music provides an alternative means through which children who are unable or unwilling to speak can express feelings and ideas. Specific learning skills are generally grouped into categories such as gross motor, language, auditory, and visual. All learning skills can be dealt with in any music situation, but some are nearly always inherent in every music activity. These fall into the perceptual motor classification, since most music experiences involve sensory perception (i.e., listening, seeing, feeling) combined with motor acts (i.e. singing, playing, moving).

Even today, there are those who are unaware that children with cognitive and physical impairments can, with effective teaching, learn music concepts and skills, and that music programs for them need not be relegated to a merely recreational or entertainment level. Of course, there have always been dedicated and imaginative music teachers who are and were unwilling to compromise their professional goals. Fortunately, these individuals accepted the challenge to teach the deaf to sing and to play instruments, the retarded to learn fundamental music skills, and individuals lacking functional hands and fingers to play instruments. Those music educators, who can be found in countries around the world, have led the way in applying special education research to music teaching and have been responsible for this new aspect of music education.

People with developmental delays may have delayed motor development and/or physical challenges. Playing musical instruments and singing are simple ways to demonstrate ability regardless of the sound created. Movement to music develops self-awareness. The movement can be slight like tapping a desk or a triangle with a hand or finger or large like playing a drum or any other percussion instrument. The connection between the sound and the person’s movement encourages self-awareness and repetition, which can create a learning environment. Adults and children with developmental delays can move to music in physical exercise and in dance. Such experiences will also encourage social interaction, enjoyment and exercise. Because music is time ordered, it is an ideal stimulus to help coordinate movement.  Social interaction can take place in group musical experiences. No matter how profound the physical or mental challenges are, music therapy enhances functional abilities while simultaneously enriching creative and expressive capacities.  Music can be an engaging and attractive intervention for children with autism. Research has shown that 80 - 90% of individuals with autism respond positively to music as a motivator. The application of music can be used to enhance attending behaviors and reduce distractibility, and several studies have documented music therapy as a successful treatment modality to engage the child.  There are huge inter-individual differences between children within music therapy therefore a highly individual approach is necessary. Autistic symptoms – impairment in social interaction and stereotypes – manifest in music therapy process. There are many means of application of music therapy within the treatment of autism.  Today, Music intervention is also used across various other ailments and disorders like cerebral palsy, Downs’ syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s’ disease, Stroke etc.

We are all different personalities, different wants and needs, and have different ways of showing our emotions. Navigating through this all takes tact and cleverness – especially if we hope to succeed in life. This is where emotional intelligence becomes important.  Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what the others are telling us, and realize how our emotions affect people around us. Emotional intelligence also involves your perception of others: when you understand how they feel, this allows you to manage relationships more effectively. Music can be used as a powerful tool to stimulate emotional intelligence in children. Music brings out emotions or helps re-experience emotions which we have experienced earlier.  Could be a chirp of a bird, a child’s cry, a pet’s sound.  Self-discipline, perseverance and determination, responsibility, hard work and teamwork are some of the values through which emotional intelligence can be stimulated by way of learning a classical instrument or by way of vocal music.

To summarize, music is a content area of the curriculum that not only strives for the achievement of facts and skills, but provides all children with learning experiences that are basic to learning in other areas of the curriculum as well.  Children, primarily learn by hearing, seeing, doing thinking, experimenting, moving or any combination of the above.  The same ways of learning are incorporated through music and arts by the usage of hands, feet, eyes, ears and the mouth while learning to play a musical instrument or as in vocal or dance.  Learning to play an instrument involves the entire brain and helps in its total development and organization by utilization of all the senses.  The result is that the child retains information and can transfer learning to other subjects. 

All teachers today are challenged by the increasing diversity of their students, and they all need more effective ways to work with these differences. Music is a language that everyone speaks and understands. We are all born rhythmical people--we lived with our mother’s heartbeat for nine months before we were born. We all live with the rhythms of our respiration and heartbeat. The human body and voice has surely been used in early artistic self-expression not only by ancient humans, but by every child today. If we are to make a strong case for music education, we cannot do so merely by focusing on its cultural value to civilization. We cannot do so by just discussing what it does for the human spirit. We must begin to use the information at hand from the cognitive sciences. We need to carry on research on the academic achievement of music students and make that information broadly available to all those engaged in educational planning and practice. We need to note the results of music education in the improved development of higher order thinking skills, including analysis, synthesis, logic, and creativity; improved concentration and lengthened attention spans; improved memory and retention; and improved interpersonal skills and abilities to work with others in collaborative ways. And then we can discuss the joy of learning that comes from listening to and making music. When all educators recognize the value of music as an integral and essential part of the curriculum, we will see more opportunities for all students to be successful.   The parts of the brain that schools fail to develop are the creative areas, which we use for imagination, for postulating innovative ideas and for dealing with complexity and ambiguity. Creative abilities by way of music and arts eventually lead us to generate new ideas and discovery, vital qualities that our nation was built on and will continue to be needed for the next century.   

 DR. GEETHA R.BHAT

Have you ever found yourself tapping your feet to the beat of the music on the radio as you are driving down the highway? Have you ever heard a song on the railway station that immediately brought back an experience you had years ago? How many of us learned the alphabet by singing the ABC song? Many of us know little about music theory nor do we have the ability to compose music, yet just about everyone responds to music of one kind or another. We do not need to understand music to know what we like. You may find that a certain kind of music helps you relax, another makes you feel happy and yet another may overwhelm you with emotion or even bring you to tears. Music does not need to be studied or understood on an intellectual level to have an effect on us. Music can please our senses, teach us things, help us remember and have an amazing emotional effect.

We all know how powerful music can be in our own lives and in the lives of our children, but why is music so compelling and captivating?  What exactly is it about music that makes it a great way to connect with and help children with special needs?

 1. Music Motivates

Finding ways to motivate children to work on challenging tasks or skills can be difficult. Music tends to be one of the top motivators for children with special needs

For E.g. Using captivating instruments to prompt a child to make requests, i.e. holding out a drum and waiting for them to communicate, “I want the drum”; Use different instruments to encourage the development of motor skills; singing out challenging patterns to stimulate sound and speech… etc.

 2. Music is a Multi-Sensory Experience

Imagine a child playing Veena. On the surface level most people would just see a child playing an instrument but hold on, there is so much more going on. Let’s break it down.

·         Their tactile system is engaged because they are feeling the strings in their hand

·         Their kinaesthetic system in engaged as they move their wrist and arm to pluck  the strings

·         Their auditory system is engaged as they listen to the sound of the Instrument

·         Their visual system is engaged as their eyes track the motion of their fingers while moving across the different frets to produce sound and music.

Playing a musical instrument requires a complex skill set that depends on the brain's ability to quickly integrate information from multiple senses. While multi-sensory learning engages children and provides greater retention, music education for children in particular provides research-proven cognitive benefits. Incorporating music and movement into a child’s learning routine stimulates all areas of the brain, including: vision, balance, hearing, speech, behaviour, sensation, cognition, movement, and emotion. 

3. Music is processed in Both Hemispheres of the Brain

The co-ordination of Rhythm (tala and laya) along with the melodies (Raga) is a combined complex activity which engages both the hemispheres of the brain.  While the vocabulary of Music comes from the left brain, the perceptions and emotions come from the right brain.  While the Intellectual Hunger is satisfied through our Tala Precision system, the emotional curiosity is stimulated and satisfied through the Ragas or Melodies.  The remarkable thing about music is that it’s processed in many regions of the brain simultaneously. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music shows that when making music, the sensory cortex, auditory cortex, hippocampus, visual cortex, cerebellum, amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and motor cortex are all firing at once and this relates to the multi-sensory experience of making music because each of these sensory systems is tied into a specific part of the brain.

4. Music is Non-verbal and helps to connect with a child

So aptly said, “Where words fail, music speaks.”  For many of the children I work with, words fail them daily. Either they can’t get the words out or can’t process the words coming in. I always think about how maddening it must be to have limited speech skills and yet get bombarded by speech and words all day long from people around you. I often reflect upon this experience when I make music with a child who is non-verbal. When we connect with each other and express ourselves without words, it feels more powerful and effective than spoken language, which in turn becomes a huge relief for them.

5. Music improves Spatial Reasoning:

Some of these music pathways actually affect the way we think. Listening to classical music can improve our spatial reasoning, at least for a short time. And learning to play an instrument may have an even longer effect on certain thinking skills. "Researchers believe that musical training actually creates new pathways in the brain." After listening to classical music, children or adults can do certain spatial tasks more quickly, such as putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Why does this happen? The classical music pathways in our brain are similar to the pathways we use for spatial reasoning. When we listen to classical music, the spatial pathways are "turned on" and ready to be used.   This priming makes it easier to work a puzzle quickly. But the effect lasts only a short time. Our improved spatial skills fade about an hour after we stop listening to the music.  Learning to play an instrument can have longer-lasting effects on spatial reasoning. The music by our `Musical Trinity ‘and most classical composers have a more complex musical structure,   which may have different positive effects on the brain than listening to other types of music.

We can hence conclude that Music therapy is the application of music and musical intervention to enhance personal lives by creating positive changes in the individual.   The primary purpose of music education programs for differently-abled children (as for all children) is to actively involve the child in meaningful music experiences in order to develop music concepts and skills appropriate to individual functioning level.  Specific learning skills are generally grouped into categories such as gross motor, language, auditory, and visual. All learning skills can be dealt with in any music situation, but some are nearly always inherent in every music activity. These fall into the perceptual motor classification, since most music experiences involve sensory perception (i.e., listening, seeing, feeling) combined with motor acts (i.e. singing, playing, moving).

Music Therapy treatment in the field of Psychiatry/Psychology is growing.  The use of these techniques in this field has always been popular but even more so in recently due to continuing research in the field of psychiatric medicine.  In the never-ending search for cures and treatments that do not involve heavy doses of medication, Music Therapy shines a light.  Music Therapy has often been looked upon as a "Holistic" medicine, making use of a person's inner being, or mental capacities in order to find causes and cures for many ailments.  Some therapists cringe at this word.  But the reputation of "Holistic" medicine has changed over the years and the world of Medicine now sees that Music Therapy can be used as a "supplement" to traditional remedies as well as, at times, a replacement for pain medication and the like.  Music and Relaxation, Music Performance, Music and Movement, Music Psychotherapy, Music as Recreation...  all of these areas are encompassed by Music Therapists working with psychiatric patients to help achieve the desired results.

India has as extensive literature on gandharva tatva or the science of music dating back to the 4^th century BC.  India’s sacred and secular literature inclusive of the Vedas, Upanishads, Epics and Puranas contain valuable references to music.  The concept of God as ‘Nadabrahma’ i.e., embodiment of musical sound reveals in the clearest terms, the high place given to music in India.  The ancient system of Nada Yoga, which dates back to the time of Tantras, has fully acknowledged the impact of music on body and mind and put into practice the vibrations emanating from sounds to uplift one's level of consciousness. Stimulating the energy centres or chakras of the body through the resonance of sound or saptaswaras is the essence of ‘Nadayoga’.

Sad that even today, there are those who are unaware that children with cognitive and physical impairments can, with effective teaching, learn music concepts and skills, and that music programs for them need not be relegated to a merely recreational or entertainment level. Of course, there have always been dedicated and imaginative music teachers who were unwilling to compromise their professional goals. Fortunately, these individuals accepted the challenge to teach the deaf to sing and to play instruments, the retarded to learn fundamental music skills, and individuals lacking functional hands and fingers to play instruments. Those music educators, who can be found in countries around the world, have led the way in applying special education research to music teaching and have been responsible for this new aspect of music education.

A gentle approach to disciplining kids

Geetha R Bhat, July 02, 2015,

Positive discipline is about helping your child learn positive values and develop social skills for life. It may help to think about what you are aiming for as a parent. Getting your child to do what they’re told right now may seem critical in the heat of the moment, but unquestioning obedience is probably not on your list of top adult qualities you aspire to.

Instead, most parents aim to raise a young person who is responsible, but also adaptable, adept at compromising and negotiating, skilled at communicating and able to flexibly think their way out of problems. These are exactly the kind of traits positive discipline encourages. Positive discipline involves parenting in a warm, kind and respectful way with fair, firm boundaries and relevant, reasonable consequences.

Using positive discipline
Positive discipline must be given in the context of a warm, positive and loving environment. The more positive attention and encouraging comments you give your child, the more they will respond to disapproval. Look out for all examples of desirable behaviour and comment approvingly, such as “Wow, you waited so quietly when I was on the phone. That was so patient of you!” 

Choose your battles. Constant nagging and criticism makes children tune out. Decrease the number of commands given to those that are most important. Ignore minor misbehaviour and focus on the things that really matter. When you make requests, use a polite, respectful and positive tone. Ask yourself, “If someone spoke to me in this way, would I feel like obliging?” Avoid sarcasm threats, criticism, labelling, teasing and shouting.

After making a request, allow time for your little one to respond. If you keep nagging them, they will learn to ignore you the first few times you ask for anything. When making requests, state what you want to happen, not what you want to stop. Every time your child complies with a request, praise him/her.

If your child doesn’t do as you ask, ask again more firmly. This gives your child a chance to change their response. If they still don’t respond, you may choose to use impose a relevant consequence. So if your little ones carry on throwing a toy at their sister, after being asked to stop, take the toy off for half an hour.

If your children get upset and lose control of their feelings, don’t dismiss their concerns – this will probably make them more frustrated and more likely to act up. Instead, show concern and empathy, for example “I know you were really looking forward to going swimming; so no wonder you’re so disappointed it was cancelled”.

With older children, a problem-solving approach can be really effective. In any situation posing physical danger, intervene immediately to set limits, but simultaneously connect by empathising. “The rule is no hitting, even though she made you really mad by teasing like that. Let's sit down and talk about this.”

Listen to your child’s ideas, respect their feelings and praise practical solutions. Agree on a mutually acceptable, feasible solution, like, “You don’t like doing your homework now. Would you be fine to do it after your tennis class?” At times, every parent feels overwhelmed and frustrated and on the edge of imposing a reactive, harsh discipline. When you feel like this, it can be helpful to take time out yourself (making sure your child is safe). This is also a great way to model appropriate behaviour to your child.

Make sure you’re not too hard on yourself. It’s easy to be self-critical and dwell on the situations in which you weren’t happy with how you disciplined your child. Instead, take time at the end of each day to remind yourself of times you handled things well and think about what positive things that says about your parenting skills.

Above all, talk and listen to your children every day even if it is for just few minutes. Facilitate communication. Every word, facial expression, gesture, or action on the part of a parent gives the child some message about self-worth. It is just that so many parents don’t realise what messages they are sending. So it is important to become aware of what you are doing, knowing that your children would emulate you

Inclusive education to empower children with special needs
Mainstream

 Inclusive education and special school concepts are not competitive but complementary to each other, reckons Dr Geetha R Bhat.

Nature and nurture has a substantial role to play in the growth and development of human beings.  Nature and nurture apart, human organisms are susceptible to damage through disease and injury.

Deviations from the average of physical and mental ability of human beings beyond limits resulting in substantial and appreciable difficulties in performing a function or in social adjustment would be perceived as disability.

Setting up a special school with all necessary resources like infrastructure, equipments and manpower warrants a huge capital. In a developing country like India which cannot afford to make huge investments, an alternative system becomes imperative so as to bring the disabled children under the umbrella of education. Inclusive education is one such viable approach to make the dream come true.    

Inclusion in education is an approach to educating students with special educational needs. Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students.

When children with special needs learn in the same school as their non-disabled peers with the support necessary for them to be successful there, then the society is said to be “inclusive”.  All students in a school, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses in any area become part of the school community.

A “team approach” is very crucial for inclusion. Some of the key players could be regular teachers, parents, community, resource teachers, non-disabled children, Children With Special Needs (CWSN) and so on. Inclusive Education helps children with disabilities to prepare for full participation in community life.

The community should encourage the education of children with disabilities in their neighborhood.  This ensures better acceptance of the disability and enables them in education, employment and social activities. For Inclusive Education to be successful all school personnel need to display shared responsibility and support for all students and teachers should have the capacity to understand the unique needs of children.

Inclusion settings allow children with and without disabilities to play and interact every day, even when they are receiving therapeutic services. When a child displays fine motor difficulty, his ability to fully participate in common classroom activities, such as cutting, coloring, and zipping a jacket may be hindered.

While occupational therapists are often called to assess and implement strategies outside of school, it is frequently left up to classroom teachers to implement strategies in school. Collaborating with occupational therapists will help classroom teachers use intervention strategies and increase teacher’s awareness about student’s needs within school settings and enhance teacher’s independence in implementation of occupational therapy strategies.

There are many positive effects of inclusions where both the students with special needs and the other students in the classroom benefit. Research has shown positive effects for children with disabilities in areas such as reaching Individualized Education Program (IEP) goal, improving communication and social skills, increasing positive peer interactions, many educational outcomes, and post school adjustments. Positive effects on children without disabilities include the development of positive attitudes and perceptions of persons with disabilities and the enhancement of social status with non-disabled peers.  The overall benefits could be

*All children are enriched and have a positive attitude
* Professional skills are developed for teachers
* Parents are better equipped to deal with their children
* Children with special needs are better prepared for independent living.

However, the concept of Inclusive Education should not be perceived as a threat to Special School programmes.  The Special Schools can concentrate on more difficult groups such as children with multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy, severe retardation, etc.  Inclusive education and special school concepts are not competitive to each other, but are infact complementary to each other.  

The Directive Principle of Indian Constitution, the National Policy of Education, The RCI Act, the PWD Act, The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA 2010) project empowers to ensure admission, retention and education of all children in the age group of 6 to 14 years, including the disabled children. No normal school can deny admission to a disabled child. 

With the growing prevalence of children with various disorders, Inclusive Education can definitely benefit those children who have learning disability, mild or borderline intellectual functioning and other special needs children.  Schools have to adopt a separate way of assessing these children instead of the normal writing assessments. Oral assessments, projects, experimental method, co-curricular assessments will prove beneficial.  Resource rooms with a trained resource teacher and adequate learning aids should be made compulsory in all schools.  

Today, with the availability of abundant opportunities across different fields, be it, music, sports, martial arts, art and craft, children, especially the specially challenged children can excel across multiple myriad fields with basic academics and adequate life skills.  And this is where we and the current education system of our country need to focus on to empower children with special needs

Have you been struggling to deal with your child’s learning disability? GeethaBhat offers help.

How do you explain concepts to a student who struggles to read, write, spell or learn Math, although he/she does not have mental retardation, emotional problems or educational disadvantages and has normal vision, hearing and language capabilities?

One explanation could be that the student has a learning disability. It is a general term that refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested by significant difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical abilities.

These disorders are intrinsic to the individual, presumed to be due to a central nervous system dysfunction, and may occur across one’s life span. Most definitions agree that students with learning disabilities are at least average in intelligence, but have significant academic problems and perform significantly below what would be expected.

Students with learning disabilities are not all alike. The most common characteristics are specific difficulties in one or more academic areas — poor coordination, an attention deficit, hyperactivity and impulsiveness; problems organising and interpreting visual and auditory information; disorders of thinking, memory, speech and hearing and difficulties keeping and making friends. In fact, students with other disabilities (such as Attention Deficit Disorder) and normal students may have some of the same characteristics.

Now, not all students with learning disabilities will have these problems, and few will have all of the above-mentioned problems.

Some psychologists believe that the learning disability label is overused and abused. Some students may just be slow learners in school, average learners in high-achieving schools, students with second-language problems, or students who are behind in academics for various social and economic reasons.

Early diagnosis is important so that students with learning disabilities do not become terribly frustrated and discouraged. These kids are usually at a loss, wondering why they have trouble with learning and become the victims of learned helplessness.

Diagnosing disabilities

Assessment is an important step in diagnosing learning disabilities. Find helpful information on special education, diagnosis, and work with schools throughout the assessment process and beyond.

Here are some tips for parents and teachers of children with learning disabilities
nPraise the child when he/she does well. Children with learning disabilities are often very good at a variety of things. Find out what your child really enjoys doing, such as dancing, playing soccer, or working with computers. Give your child plenty of opportunities to pursue his strengths.

nFind out ways the child learns best. Does he/she learn by hands-on practice, looking, or listening? Help your child learn through his or her areas of strength.

nBreak tasks into smaller steps, and giving directions verbally and in writing nAllow assignments to be typed, taped or dictated

• Increase the time allowed or decrease the amount of work load
• Omit handwriting as a criterion for evaluating reports
• Construct tests that require minimal writing such as multiple-choice or matching
• Provide opportunities for group projects, peer tutoring and/or learning centres
• Allow the use of calculators or other manipulative aids
• It can be tough to face the possibility that a child has a learning disorder. No parent wants to see his or her child suffer. You may wonder what it could mean for your child’s future, or worry about how your kid will make it through school. Perhaps you’re concerned about your child’s learning problems being labeled ‘slow’ or assigned to a less challenging class.

But the important thing to remember is that most kids with learning disabilities are just as smart as everyone else. They just need to be taught in ways that are tailored to their unique learning styles. By learning more about learning disabilities and your child’s learning difficulties in particular, you can help pave the way for success at school and beyond.

(The author is a child mental health practitioner.)

MUSIC & LEARNING

Did you know that music therapy has the power to facilitate communication skills, self expression, and motor functions, asks Geetha R Bhatt

Albert Einstein is recognised as one of the smartest men to have ever lived. A little known fact about Einstein is that when he was young, he did extremely poorly in school. His grade school teachers told his parents to take him out of school because he was “too stupid to learn” and it was thought to be a huge waste of resources for the school to invest time and energy in his education.

His mother, who did not believe her son was “stupid”, bought him a violin instead and Albert became good at the violin. Music helped him become one of the smartest men. Einstein himself has said that the reason he was so smart was because he played the violin. He loved the music of Mozart and Bach the most. A friend of Einstein, G J Withrow, said that the way Einstein figured out his problems and equations was by improvising on the violin.

Children, primarily learn by hearing, seeing, doing, thinking, experimenting, moving or any combination of the above. The same ways of learning are incorporated through music and arts by the usage of hands, feet, eyes, ears and the mouth while learning to play a musical instrument or as in vocal or dance. Learning to play an instrument involves the entire brain and helps in its total development and organisation by utilisation of all the senses. The result is that the child retains information and can transfer learning to other subjects.

Music and arts-based education is a win-win situation because a child involved in music or the arts, increases his/her ability to learn and understand other subjects. Learning an art form not only allows the child to develop his/her intelligence that lies within him/her, but also allows the child to express his/her uniqueness as a person, thereby displaying strong inner confidence and a sense of self-worth. Research has proved that the relationship between a musical activity and the brain benefits by stimulating motor therapy, speech and language therapy, pain management, and cognitive rehabilitation in areas such as memory, executive function and attention. Music therapy has the power to facilitate communication skills, self-expression, fine and gross motor functioning and bring about various other positive changes in individuals with development delays and learning disabilities , Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, relaxation to the terminal ill patients, etc.

One of the big breakthroughs in education came in the early 1980s. The work of psychologist Howard Gardner gave educators and parents a greater understanding about intelligence and how children learn. In his book, Frames of Mind, he introduced his theory of multiple intelligences. Until Gardner’s research, educators believed that children were born with a fixed intelligence that is measured through an IQ test. But Gardner proved that there could be many ways to be intelligent.

He identified seven different areas of intelligence and said that these seven areas develop at different times and to different degrees in different individuals. He later identified an eighth intelligence of the naturalist and today, we have within us capabilities of all eight types of intelligence.

But the bad news is that schools reward only two types of intelligence identified by Gardner — verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical. The other areas are equally important and these include musical, bodily/kinesthetic, visual/spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal, but are not necessarily acknowledged by most schools. The good news is that musical intelligence is so powerful that by learning a musical instrument or studying the arts, the other seven types of intelligence can be developed at the same time.

Value in music education

If we are to make a strong case for music education, we cannot do so merely by focusing on its cultural value to civilisation.

We must begin to use the information we have of the cognitive sciences. We need to carry on research on the academic achievement of music students and make that information broadly available to all those engaged in educational planning and practice. We must note the results of music education on the development of higher order thinking skills, including analysis, synthesis, logic, and creativity; improved concentration and lengthened attention spans; improved memory and retention; and improved interpersonal skills and abilities to work with others in collaborative ways.

And then we can discuss the joy of learning that comes from listening to and making music.

Perhaps it seems too simplistic to think that by merely adding music and arts to the curriculum, schools will turn out students ready to accept and meet the challenges of the workplace. But when you truly consider the information gained through scientific studies on brain development, one can note this simple idea provides the method by which the complex process of developing optimal brain function can be achieved.