How piano lessons can improve your child's language skills
New York, June 26: If your kid is slow in language skills, then sending him or her for piano lessons can improve word discrimination as well as language proficiency, says a study.
The findings suggested that piano lessons may have specific effect on the children's ability to distinguish different pitches, which helped them to better distinguish different words.
However it did not appear to confer any benefit for overall cognitive ability, as measured by IQ, attention span, and working memory, the researchers said.
"The children didn't differ in the more broad cognitive measures, but they did show some improvements in word discrimination, particularly for consonants. The piano group showed the best improvement there," said Robert Desimone from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, included data from nearly 100 children aged four or five years, who were divided into three groups -- one that received 45-minute piano lessons three times a week; one that received extra reading instruction for the same period of time; and one that received neither intervention.
After six months, the researchers tested the children on their ability to discriminate words based on differences in vowels, consonants, or tone.
The results showed that, children who had piano lessons showed a significant advantage over children in the extra reading group in discriminating between words that differ by one consonant.
Children in both the piano group and extra reading group performed better than children who received neither intervention when it came to discriminating words based on vowel differences.
"That's a big thing for kids in learning language: being able to hear the differences between words. They really did benefit from that," Desimone added.
The researchers hope their findings could encourage other schools to keep or enhance their music offerings.
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Kundapur: Jet ski boat capsizes off Trasi beach; dead body of rider found in sea water
Kundapur: The dead body of a 41-year-old jet ski rider, Rohidas, also known as Ravi, who had drowned in a jet ski mishap at Trasi beach on Saturday evening was found on the beach, in the area behind the crematorium at Hospet here on Monday morning.
The body was seen floating in the sea waters off the shore by two local fishermen Shasa Kharvi and Mohan Kharvi at around 3 am on Monday, approximately 36 hours after the accident. The fishermen are learned to have informed the Coast Guard Coastal Control Squad staff member Nishanth Kharvi, who, with help from the fishermen, got Rohidas’ body out of the waters and brought the matter to the notice of the police.
Further, Ibrahim Gangolli, staff member of 24x7 Ambulance Service, Gangolli; beach management staff member Suresh Koderi, Rohidas’ colleagues and Nishanth Kharvi got the disaster victim’s body off the beach.
Gangolli Police have visited the Trasi beach to conduct an inspection of the area.
Rohidas, a rider on a jet ski boat of the Beluga Water Sports company at the Trasi beach, was taking a tourist on a sea excursion on Saturday, when he lost control over the boat. As the boat capsized, the tourist escaped, but Rohidas drowned in the sea.
