Numeracy musical training for school children with low achievement in mathematics

Abstract

El presente estudio caso-controle, doble ciego, y prospectivo investigó los efectos del entrenamiento musical de numerosidad (NMT; Numeracy Musical Training), sobre habilidades cognitivas en niños de enseñanza primaria. Participaron 42 niños de 8 a 10 años divididos en dos grupos: con Bajo Rendimiento Aritmético (n = 21), y con Medio Rendimiento Aritmético (n = 21). Los niños pasaron por dos evaluaciones, antes y después de la realización del NMT, en las cuales se aplicaron pruebas cognitivas y escalas de comportamiento, que evaluaban variables tales como: rendimiento escolar, CI, memoria operativa, cognición numérica, ansiedad y estrés. El NMT fue desarrollado en ocho sesiones colectivas y tuvo como objetivo estimular los sistemas de la cognición numérica e integrar conocimientos musicales básicos y representaciones simbólicas. Después de la intervención por medio del entrenamiento musical los niños de ambos grupos obtuvieron mejoras significativas en el rendimiento académico, en los sistemas de la cognición numérica y en la memoria operativa, así como una disminución de la manifestación de ansiedad a las matemáticas. The present case-control, double-blind, and prospective study investigated the effects of Numeracy Music Training (NMT) on cognitive skills of primary school children. Participating in the study were 42 children aged 8 to 10 years divided into two groups: Low Achievement in Math (n = 21), and Average Achievement in Math (n = 21). The children underwent two evaluations before and after NMT, where cognitive tests and behavior scales were applied that assessed variables such as school performance, IQ, working memory, numerical cognition, anxiety and stress. NMT was developed in eight group sessions and aimed to stimulate the systems of numerical cognition and integrate basic musical knowledge, and symbolic representations. After the intervention, through musical training, the children in both groups showed significant improvements in school performance, systems of numerical cognition and working memory, as well as the reduction of manifestation of mathematics anxiety.

Music Aptitude, Training, and Cognitive Transfer: A Mini-Review

“…Although from Forgeard et al (2008) study, it appears as though the effects of music training has a limited transferability to other cognitive domains (in this study, it is verbal and nonverbal reasoning, but not spatial and mathematics), and the fact that the study was correlational by design and hence cannot be used as evidence for a causal relationship, Rauscher et al (1997) study, discussed in greater detail in the ensuing paragraph, is experimental by design and showed a causal relationship between music training and enhanced spatial-temporal reasoning in young children. Similarly, a few other studies are suggestive of a positive association between music training and enhanced math-related skills as well (see Cheek and Smith, 1999;Ribeiro and Santos, 2017;Rodriguez et al, 2019). Cheek and Smith (1999), although correlational by design, showed a positive association between 2 years of private music lessons and enhanced numerical skills in typically developing adolescents.…”

Persistent Effects of Musical Training on Mathematical Skills of Children With Developmental Dyscalculia

“…However, some studies have proposed an association between music and executive functions, consequently influencing math skills (Dumont et al, 2017;Azaryahu et al, 2019;Guhn et al, 2019), and also the spatial-temporal reasoning (Rauscher et al, 1994;Graziano et al, 1999), which is essential to process number magnitude since it is spatially represented in the mind (Dehaene et al, 1993). In line with this, studies demonstrated that MT leads to improvements in spatial abilities in pre-and elementary school children boosting their learning of specific math concepts, such as counting, proportions, and fractions (Graziano et al, 1999;Silva et al, 2017;Arias-Rodriguez et al, 2019). If MT increases spatial-visual abstract reasoning, this practice might also improve comprehension about geometry, proportional reasoning, pattern recognition, ratio fractions, and subdivisions (Vaughn, 2000;Schlaug et al, 2005).…”

“…Although, there are longitudinal studies, testing neurological and behavioral effects of MT on clinical samples of children with attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder (Seither-Preisler et al, 2014;Serrallach et al, 2016), and with dyslexia (Serrallach et al, 2016), very few studies have investigated the MT effects on learning disorder related to numerical abilities, such as DD (Esteki, 2013;Arias-Rodriguez et al, 2019).…”

Reducing Math Anxiety in School Children: A Systematic Review of Intervention Research

“…21% of the studies found a positive effect of intervention(s) on MA in both the intervention as well as the control/comparison group (e.g., Jansen et al, 2013;Huang et al, 2014;Hines et al, 2016;Kim et al, 2017;Arias Rodriguez et al, 2019). Rauscher et al (2017) showed that students who trained with the online math training Calcularis obtained significant lower MA scored compared the waiting list control group (intervention vs. waiting list control group).…”