One more post in support of music education! Recent researches have found that studying music at young age helps children to develop “bigger vocabularies, a better sense of grammar and a higher verbal IQ.” And we all know how important it is in the today’s economic environment. Since the first ages children need to build their skills for the future and parents are requested to find the best methods to boost children’s intelligence. Among many available, including flashcards and sign language, “music training is the only proven method to boost the full intellectual, linguistic and emotional capacity of a child.” At this link the full article for your review, by Liisa Henriksson-Macaulay, author of The Music Miracle: The Scientific Secret to Unlocking Your Child’s Full Potential:

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/feb/27/musicians-better-language-learners

But music can help also the oldest! The article “Music Making as a Tool for Promoting Brain Plasticity across the Life Span”, published in the scientific magazine The Neuroscientis, shows as “playing a musical instrument is an intense, multisensory, and motor experience” that “requires the acquisition and maintenance of a range of skills.” For those reasons, music making is recognized as “an interactive treatment or intervention for neurological and developmental disorders, as well as those associated with normal aging.”

http://nro.sagepub.com/content/16/5/566.short