A new study sings the praises music instruction and its impact on a child’s cognition. NY1′s Shazia Khan filed the following report.
Orchestral sounds fill a church in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx.
The not-for-profit group Upbeat NYC meets here several times a week after school. It offers students, ages five and up, music lessons for free.
“When I play the violin, I feel like I can do so much. It just inspires me,” one student says.
Husband and wife team Richard Miller and Liza Austria founded Upbeat NYC as a way to introduce music into the lives of under-served kids in the South Bronx. Now, a new study published in The Journal of Neuroscience finds these young minds and others who play an instrument are getting more than just a music education.
“It shows for the first time that playing an instrument, and not just listening to music, shows real improvement in the literacy and language function of your child,” says neurologist Dr. Jaydeep Bhatt of NYU Langone Medical Center.
Forty-four Los Angeles public school students between the ages of six and nine were observed. The study found the kids who had completed two years of musical instrument instruction were able to better process language.
“Recognizing conso………….