In order to present both sides of the music training for speech and reading argument, I thought I’d comment on another study on this topic.  Recent music neuroscience studies have shown that children who are engaged in music are changed by that engagement. For instance, children involved in music programs in school have been shown to have higher standardized test scores (Johnson & Memmot, 2006), children who practice and played piano have higher cortical responses to piano than non-musicians (Pantev et al. 1998), and children trained in music increase gray matter in areas of the motor cortex, auditory cortex, and corpus callosum (Hyde et al. 2009).

A study by Moreno et al. (2009) investigated the effect of musical training (6 months) on event-related potentials evoked during tasks that measure linguistic processing. Children were then pseudorandomly assigned to a music training or painting group. Music training included “a combination of Kodaly, Orff, and Wuytack methodologies… and included training on rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre” (p. 714). Children’s score pre- and post-intervention were compared using ANOVA. Results indicated that children who were involved in the music group significantly improved in correct responses to inconsistent words and the discrimination of small pitch variations. The music group also showed stronger ERPs to music and speech tasks than the painting group.

The bottom line? Music neuroscience studies are beginning to show that music training can drive cortical plasticity – or changes in the brain in a very short amount of time. Most music therapy clinicians work with children with disabilities and use music as a tool to promote nonmusical functional changes.  If music can change the brain of typical children, then there is the potential that music can change the atypical brain.  Of course, more research is needed to determine the effect of music therapy treatment for cortical changes in children with disabilities.

Johnson, C., & Memmott, J. (2006). Examination of relationships between participation in school music programs of differing quality and standardized test results. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54(4), 293-307. doi:10.2307/4139752.

Hyde, K., Lerch, J., Norton, A., Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Evans, A., et al. (2009). Musical training shapes structural brain development. The Journal of Neuroscience, 29(10), 3019-3025. PMID: 19279238

Pantev C, Oostenveld R, Engelien A, Ross B, Roberts LE, Hoke M. 1998. Increased auditory cortical representation in musicians. Nature. 392:811–814. PMID: 9572139