Can Classical Music Make your Child Smart?
Jun 01 '00
When I think about classical music like Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, and Mozart I think of the beautiful, relaxing, sweet sounds of their composition. Never would I have known it could do so much for my children. I had read many stories and studies about Mozart and Beethoven music actually helping to improve neurons in the brain and develop the neural Bridges, as many studies would specify a child's brain functions like a sponge between the ages of 0-3 years old. Ready to indulge any and all information and stimulation it can possibly receive. Now instead of picturing the brain as a sponge, think of it as a river, on each side of the river stands neurons waiting to be connected to a pathway of information, called neural bridges. Each time a child is stimulated to think, either a new neural bridge is formed or pre-existing ones are strengthened. The more neural bridges are formed and strengthened, the more the intellect will be developed. And visa-versa, when neurons are not connected to others, no neural bridges are formed, signifying a weaker area of intellect. Without stimulation for any lengths of time, the neurons will break off and float down the river (die off), As the old saying goes "Use it or lose it"!
While I read these stories and studies I never really had any prove of my own; therefore I did a study on my own children. Timing was perfect for me, I had an eight-month-old and I was pregnant with my Fourth child. My third child (Cody) was born premature at 2lbs 9 ozs. He had some respiratory problems as well as some apnea distress. My fourth child (Trevor) was also born premature He was born at 1lb 15-½ oz. Much smaller and had several other problems including needing blood transfusions. I began Cody listening to Beethoven and Mozart at the age of eight months, at the same time I started Trevor, Listening to their music as soon as he came out of the womb. While in the intensive care unit I had the nurses position a speaker in his incubator. After coming home from the hospital I had the sweat sounds of this music playing in their room at night. Trevor then had a problem and we almost lost him (my husband asserted C.P.R while I panicked to the 911 operator). A Strep group B infection, from the last Blood transfusion, put him back into the pediatric intensive care unit just three weeks after being home. As a result another month of developmental time was lost, due to such distress. I then again had the nurses keep a speaker by his bedside with Beethoven and Mozart playing while sleeping. After all of this he is now doing wonderful, yet diagnosed with cerebral palsy as of November 1998. Yet, to my admiration he is now Two years and five months and talks like no other Two-year-old I had ever heard, His intellect as was well as his logical thinking are well above that of Cody'. Cody is smart as well, he knows just as much as Trevor, but Trevor whom is younger, and has a muscular disability, has an intellect above that of Cody' he speaks clearer, has a larger vocabulary, and communicates longer sentences.
Simple examples: they both know many of their states, all of their ABCs, colors, shapes, they can count to ten, yet Trevor says six and seven word sentences and if you sneeze he blurts out “Bless you”! “Thank you”, and “Your welcome” are phrases he uses on a daily basis. He uses many phrases on a daily basis as well such as: “What are you doing today?” “How was your day Today?” “May I want some lunch, I'm hungry!” His intellect is what really amazes me. We recently adopted a puppy into our Family, and the puppy whined, of coarse, for the first couple of days and all the while Trevor kept telling the Puppy “It’s OK Doggy, we won’t hurt you.” I really could'nt even tell you where he heard “We won’t hurt you” from. He actually speaks better than Cody whom is eight months older (yes just eight months apart, whoa!) has no delays or difficulties of any kind. He speaks more clearly than Cody does. Another example of Trevor’s thought process; I yawned in the car Trevor asked “Are you Tired moma?” I said “Yes, Trevor I am tired.” He then said “Well go to sleep then.” He closed his eyes, laid his head down on his chair and pretended like he was snoring.
Trevor sees a physical therapist on a weekly basis and is involved in an early intervention program through our County. His Early intervention specialist brought out a speech therapist, not to evaluate him but she wanted her to hear him speak. She was more shocked than I, she told us that in all her twenty-five years of being a speech therapist never has she heard a two year old speak the way Trevor does. She proceeded to tell me that all though many “Normal” Two-year-olds do not speak as well as Trevor, the amazing thing is Trevor has Cerebral Palsy. Those children, who suffer from Cerebral Palsy, Focus their brain-power more on moving their muscles rather than even trying to speak. She said, “Whatever it is that you had done, you did a wonderful job.” Though I would have loved to accept all the credit, I could only accept the fact that I bought the music and proceeded to play it for my children. I do work with them on a daily basis, I have the fortune to be a stay home mom, we work on all the normal pre-school lessons, reading, singing, and so on. Yet I believe it was the music, which helped develop the neurons in their brain, I would have never expected something consequently simple to help my children for short term and long term development. Without the knowledge, How are we to know? The compositions are genius, the music is wonderful and know matter what it surely can’t harm anything.
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Peace4all2000
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Member: Heather Shepherd
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