Some students don’t light up when the music soars—and it’s not about effort or attitude. Neuroscience is uncovering how individual brain wiring can shape emotional responses to music, including a rare condition called specific musical anhedonia. As educators, this challenges us to broaden our lens: what if joy in music doesn’t look the same for everyone?

A new study in the Journal of Neuroscience reveals that our brains start processing rhythm as early as 27 weeks into pregnancy.

If you are looking to develop your child’s emotional, social, motor and cognitive skills from early childhood, then try introducing music in early educational programs. Watch this video to learn more!

New research challenges traditional theories of infant language acquisition, suggesting that babies primarily learn language through rhythmic rather than phonetic information in their initial months.

This video contains excerpts from an ARTSpeaks event held on November 8, 2021. In this video, neurobiologist Nina Kraus explores the impact that music learning has on young students in the areas of reading skills, sound processing, language abilities, and more.

This article is packed with fantastic research from the MARCS Institute in Sydney, Australia. It is vital to study the first developmental steps in all areas of life.

“Research suggests music helps parents bond with babies who have had a harrowing start to life and may benefit the babies’ health and brain development.”

The results of this study found that early childhood music training can lead to associated improvements in both musical skills and language skills!

In this study, they found that 9-month-old babies who had one month of exposure to directed music listening improved not only their auditory processing of music but also their language!

“The primary musical features of infant-directed singing are ideal for emotional coordination and sharing between parent and infant without the risk of over-stimulation.”

What is musical play? Is it bashing on an upturned drum in the playground or banging pots and pans on the kitchen floor? Well, it can be both.

After 12 weeks of 35 minutes of active music learning every day, randomly chosen preschoolers in the experiment group had higher scores on all of these executive function measures.