The effects of one month of musical training on cognitive abilities and language skills

Abstract

Musical training has been shown to improve language and cognition (Kraus & Chandrasekaran, 2010; Forgeard, Winner, Norton & Schlaug, 2008a). This study investigated the effects of one month of musical training on a range of cognitive abilities and language skills in children. Two subjects participated in the study. One child was aged 9;4 with visual impairment, ADHD and limited intelligences. The second child was aged 8;10 with normal vision and no current special educational needs. Participants were given one month of musical training using a newly developed Cantonese musical application on a mobile device. Before and after the musical training, the children were assessed on a range of tasks that measured auditory short-term memory, working memory, auditory attention, phonological awareness, auditory comprehension and grammatical skills. After musical training, the typically developing child showered improvements (large effect size) on auditory attention, working memory, short-term memory and auditory comprehension. However, musical training had a minimal effect on the child with visual impairment and special educational needs. The results suggest informal musical training via mobile application may provide improvements in untrained cognitive language abilities in typically developing children. Future research could replicate this project using a larger sample or single subject design.