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Reading, writing and rhythm (April 4, 2000 12:07 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Imagine that someone assured you that having 4-year-old kids study the piano would improve their future performance in school. Would you expect that person, in the next breath, to try selling you the Brooklyn Bridge? At first glance, the idea that piano lessons are valuable for the very young may seem somewhere between harmless and preposterous. However, according to Bonnie Ward, assistant superintendent of schools for Kent County, Md., the right kind of music lessons do help improve learning in other subjects. It's a discovery that may change how school budgets are allocated. It could also mean that in the future, if there are pre-kindergarten kids in your life, you may want them to study the piano. What made Ward eager enough to institute this program in her county's school system? Over the years she had noticed that students who did well academically were often also musical. And she also knew that repeated studies have found that students with high grade-point averages were likely to have a background in music. Further, a high percentage of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search winners studied music. And music students also are more likely to have higher Scholastic Aptitude Tests than non-music students. It's an interesting connection, but none of that actually proved that studying music made the kids smart. Maybe, she reasoned, it was the other way around. Maybe kids who are bright are drawn to music. Or maybe having the kind of family that encourages music lessons is also the kind that encourages academic achievement. However, as Ward dug deeper, she learned of studies that showed that pre-kindergartners who received piano lessons did better in school. One study particularly caught her attention. A third of the students in the study learned piano keyboarding for two years. Another third spent an equal amount of time with computers. A third was a control group and received no training. At the end of this period, the computer group and the no-training group scored average results on tests for spatial-temporal reasoning. But, astonishingly, the group that had received music training had test scores that improved from the 50th percentile to the 85th percentile. Ward was intrigued by this and other studies, but it wasn't enough. She needed to know why studying music would have such a positive effect. The answer came from brain studies. We now know that a young child's brain consists of trillions and trillions of microscopic connections. In fact, there are more connections between brain cells in an individual than there are galaxies in the known universe. Experience strengthens the connections in the same way exercise strengthens a muscle; and as with a muscle, the connections that aren't strengthened may atrophy. Studying piano keyboarding strengthens the connections in regions needed for math, science and other life skills. Ward and her pioneering colleagues in the Kent and Frederick county school systems decided that they wanted these benefits for their students. They applied for a state grant to try a pre-kindergarten piano keyboarding program. Today, programs are in place at every elementary school in Kent County. "If we see the same results the researchers report," she says, "the keyboarding program will strengthen critically important spatial patterning skills. In the world that we now live in with all of the information and data that we encounter every day, the ability to find patterns and relations is absolutely critical." For more information about the Kent County Schools music program, contact Bonnie Ward. by MITZI PERDUE Copyright 2000 Nando Media Copyright 2000 Scripps Howard News Service <http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500188733-500253494-501284604-0,00.html> janet paterson 53 now / 41 dx / 37 onset a new voice: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ 613 256 8340 PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario Canada K0A 1A0