Cognitive effects of numeracy musical training in Brazilian preschool children: A prospective pilot study.

Abstract

Musical training has been shown to have beneficial effects on several human cognitive functions, including cognition, spoken language, socialization, and logical-mathematical thinking. Evidence also shows that musical training boosts several cognitive skills in children. However, few studies have focused on its effects for numerical cognition in preschoolers. We developed a brief unedited numeracy musical training (NMT) program that was tested in a pseudorandomized, blinded, prospective study. The participants included 40 preschoolers (5 years old) with typical development from the countryside of São Paulo state, Brazil. The sample was divided into 2 gender-balanced groups: an experimental group (EG; n = 20) that underwent 8 NMT sessions and a control group (CG; n = 20) that did not receive NMT. All of the participants were assessed at 2 time points by applying instruments related to the following domains: abstract reasoning, verbal and visuospatial working memory, and numeracy. Only the EG presented improvements in 2 cognitive domains in the second assessment. Our findings need to be replicated, but they provide preliminary evidence that NMT may boost numerical cognition and working memory in preschoolers.

Numeracy musical training for school children with low achievement in mathematics

“…For 'instrumental musical training', one requiring regular keyboard or piano practice, benefits were found in the processing of verbal and visual working memory (Ho, Cheung, & Chan, 2003), reasoning (Moreno et al, 2011;Schellenberg & Mankarious, 2012) and visuospatial skills (Costa-Giomi, 1999;Rauscher & Zupan, 2000). In 'non-instrumental musical training', where musical experiences with voice and perception of sounds predominate, benefits derived from the musical experience were observed in skills such as abstract reasoning, numerical cognition and working memory (Anvari et al, 2002;Rauscher et al, 1997;Silva, Baldin, & Santos, 2017). Students taking part in non-instrumental musical training linked to the learning of abstract representation and geometry, outperformed peers with little or no musical experience in tasks involving numerical and visuospatial mastery and improved performance in mathematics.…”

“…Other evidence suggests that music training can be a tool in the remediation of learning disorders in mathematics (Ribeiro & Santos, 2017) or its prevention (Silva, Baldin, & Santos, 2017). Esteki (2013) evaluated the effect of musical stimulation for the neurocognitive structuring of 13 girls, between 7 and 9 years old, diagnosed with DD.…”

“…However, in the post-training cluster analysis, some children in the clinical group, who increased their performance in numerical cognition, became identified among the controls. Silva, Baldin, and Santos (2017) researched the effects of the numeracy musical training (NMT), a specific noninstrumental music training programme designed to stimulate numerical cognition. It was a prospective, randomized and controlled study in a sample of 57 preschoolers with typical development, aged 5 years.…”

“…This approach has already been adopted in other casecontrol studies (Kucian et al, 2011;Michels, O'Gorman, & Kucian, 2017) where controls also took part in the training. The collective training promotes inclusive behaviour and socialization during the intervention (Silva, Baldin, & Santos, 2017).…”

Os Objetos De Letramento Em Creche: Uma Revisão De Literatura

“…A autora reforça que o objetivo da atividade na Educação Infantil é para que a criança desenvolva a sensibilidade aos sons e que esteja receptiva aos diferentes fenômenos sonoros (diferentes timbres, dinâmicas, gêneros e estilos). Nesse sentido, a música se faz presente nos currículos da Educação Infantil e, para além das questões pedagógicas e estéticas, promove melhorias no desenvolvimentoBALDIN;SCHELLENBERG, 2005;RAUSCHER;ZUPAN, 2000;).…”