Music and Verbal Ability

Did you ever wonder about a correlation between studying music and verbal ability? Researchers developed two interactive computerized training programs for preschool children. One was for music and one was for visual art. They then analyzed the effects of the music and the visual art training programs on verbal ability. After twenty (20) days of training, only children in the music group exhibited enhanced performance on a measure of verbal intelligence, with 90% of the sample showing this improvement. These improvements in verbal intelligence were positively correlated with changes in functional brain plasticity during an executive-function task. Researchers believe that these findings demonstrate that transfer of a high-level cognitive skill is possible in early childhood.