Promotes working memory in children:

Working on memory: music as a decisive factor

Working memory is a component of memory, it stores and processes information in the short term. It must have a large enough capacity to absorb this information and promote mental activity. If this capacity is not developed in a child according to his or her age, this can lead to an impairment of learning ability. Such an impairment can be counteracted by memory training with music, as a study published in the journal "Praxis Sprache" shows.¹ The decisive factor for the positive interactions between memory and music is that music and language are processed in the same, partially overlapping brain regions.

Memory training with music by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi

For the study, the subjects, 92 preschool children with speech comprehension problems, were divided into three groups. The first group participated in music-based auditory training. The second received conventional educational support. The third group received no intervention, serving as a control group.

The children in the first group completed their training for about three months. During this period, they listened to classical pieces of music through headphones for 30 minutes three times a week and could occupy themselves quietly as they wished. The memory training with music was therefore a passive training, the children did not have to practice actively. The pieces of music by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi were processed sonically for the study in order to stimulate the children's auditory memory. Auditory memory processes all short-term information from the environment that affects the sense of hearing.

Positive effects through memory training with music

The evaluation of the study showed that the auditory memory of the participants in the auditory training had improved significantly. The improved processing of what was heard applied particularly to high-frequency comprehension, the understanding of high frequencies in spoken words. This ability is often limited in children with speech deficits.

In addition, the subjects' noise filtering improved: they were able to better understand speech in the midst of background noise. The ability to discriminate sounds also benefited from the memory training with music. Sound discrimination is the ability to recognize and distinguish between similar-sounding sounds. It is important for language teaching as well as for reading and writing instruction.

Sources:

¹ https://www.schulz-kirchner.de/buecher/logopaedie/zeitschrift-praxis-sprache/einzelheft-praxis-sprache-ausgabe-42017-printausgabe.html