PEDAGOGICAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE NEW PERSPECTIVES IN MUSICAL NEUROEDUCATION FOR CHILDREN
Abstract
This essay presents an integrated music education project aimed at developing pre-school children's language skills. Several neuroscientific studies shows that children exposed to musical experiences in early childhood have a higher IQ, leading to the hypothesis that music can nourish brain plasticity and positively influence the process of language acquisition. Indeed, music and language share many physiological aspects, starting with the receiving organ and certain cortical areas involved in the processing of certain parameters characteristic of both phenomena, as well as the specific activation of cerebral hemispheres linked to specific structural functions (phonetics, semantics and syntax). But there is also a link between the two on an ontogenetic as well as phylogenetic level. Musical practice is one of the most complex brain activities; making music profoundly changes the sensitivity of the auditory system, improving the ability to process language sounds and to understand the nuances of meaning communicated through voice modulations.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDF (Italiano)References
Anvari S. H., Trainor L. J., Woodside J., Levy B. A., Relations among musical skills, phonological processing, and early reading ability in preschool children, November 2002, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 83(2): 111-30. doi: 10.1016/s0022-0965(02)00124-8.
Anvari S. H., Trainor L., Woodside J., Levy B. A., (2001). Relations among musical skills, phonological processing, and early reading ability in preschool children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 2002, 83(2):111-30. doi:10.1016/S0022-0965(02)00124-8.
Anzieu D., (1976). Io-pelle, Roma: Borla.
Ball P. (2010). The Music Instinct: How Music Works and why We Can't Do Without it, Oxfrd University Press.
Bolduc J. (2009). Effects of a music programme on kindergartners' phonological awareness skills. Intenational journal of music education. n. 27. doi:10.1177/0255761408099063.
Bolduc, J. (2009). Effects of a music programme on kindergartners’ phonological awareness skills. International Journal of Music Education, 27, 37-47. doi:10.1177/0255761408099063.
Boulez P., Changeux J.-P., Manoury P., (2016). I neuroni magici, Roma: Carocci.
Bruck, M. (1992) Persistenza dei deficit di consapevolezza fonologica dei dislessici. Psicologia dello sviluppo, 28, 874-886. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.874.
D’Amante M. F. (2021b). L’atelier musicale, Roma: Anicia.
D’Amante M. F. (2021). Perché tutto è musica, Roma: Anicia.
Degé F., Kubicek C., Schwarzer G. (2011). Music Lessons and Intelligence: A Relation Mediated by Executive Functions, Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 29/2, Music Training and Nonmusical Abilities (December 2011), 195-201, University of California Press. doi: 10.1525/mp.2011.29.2.195.
Delalande F. (2016). La musica è un gioco da bambini, Roma: Franco Angeli.
F. Degé, G. Schwarzer, The effect of a music program on phonological awareness in preschoolers, Developmental Psychology, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen 2011. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00124.
Fernald, A., Taeschner, T., Dunn, J., Papousek, M., De Boysson-Bardies, B., & Fukui, I. (1989). A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers’ and fathers’ speech to preverbal infants. Journal of Child Language, 16(3), 477-501. doi: 10.1017/S0305000900010679.
Friederike H., Stegemann T. (2018). The effect of music therapy in infants born preterm, Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 60/2018, pp. 256-266. doi: 10.1111/dmcn.13677.
Frisch S., Hahne A., Friederici A. D. (2004). Word category and verb-argument structure information in the dynamics of persing. Neuroscience letters, 384. do: 10.1016/j.neulet.2005.04.077
Fujioka T., Ross B., Kakigi R., Pantev C., Trainor L. J. (2006). One year of musical training affects development of auditory cortical-evoked fields in young children, Brain: a Journal of Neurology, doi: 10.1093/brain/awl247.
Gordon E. (2003). A music learnin theory for newborn and young children. Chicago: GIA.
Gromko, J.E. (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53, 199-209. doi: 10.4236/ce.2019.1010152.
Imberty, M., (2002) «La musica e il bambino», in J.-J. Nattiez (a c. di), Enciclopedia della musica, Milano, Einaudipp. 477-95.
Koelsch S, Siebel W. A. (2005). Towards a neural basis of music perception, Trends in Cognitive Sciences}, n. 9},p. 578-584. doi: 10.1016/jtics.2005.10001
Kraus, Chandrasekaran. Music training for developmental auditory skills. Nature reviews –neuroscience. n. 11-2010, 599-605 doi: 10.1038/nrn2882.
Kraus, N., Chandrasekaran, B. Music training for the development of auditory skills. Nat Rev Neurosci 11, 599–605 (2010). doi.org/10.1038/nrn2882
Lamb S.J., Gregory A. H. (1993) The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers, Educational Psychology, 13:1, 19-27, doi: 10.1080/0144341930130103.
Lamb, S.J., Gregory, A.H. (1993). The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13, 19–27.
Laurel J. Trainor, Elissa D. Clark, Anita Huntley, Beth A. Adams, (1993). The acoustic basis of preferences for infant-directed singing, Infant Behavior and Development, n. 20, 383-396, doi: 10.1016/S0163-6383(97)90009-6.
Lecanuet, J. P. (1995) «L’expérience auditive prénatale», in di I. Deliége e J. A. Sloboda (a c. di), Naissance et développement du sens musical, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, , pp. 7-38.
Lerdahl F., (2013). Musical Syntax and Its Relation to Linguistic Syntax, in Arbib M. A., Language, music and the brain, London: MIT Press.
Lurija A. (1998). La comunicazione verbale: problemi fondamentali di neurolinguistica, Roma: Armando.
Masataka N., (1999). Preference for infant-directed singing in 2-day-old hearing infants of deaf parents, Developmental Psychology, 35(4), 1001–1005. doi: 10.1037//0012-1649.35.4.1001.
McMullen E., Saffran J. R. (2004). Music and Language: A Developmental Comparison, Music Perception (2004) 21 (3): 289–311. doi:10.1525/mp.2004.21.3.289
McMullen, E., & Saffran, JR (2004). Musica e linguaggio: un confronto evolutivo. Percezione musicale, 21 (3), 289–311. doi.org/10.1525/mp.2004.21.3.289.
McMurray B., Kovack-Lesh K. A., Goodwin D., McEchron W. ( 2013). “Infant directed speech and the development of speech perception: enhancing development or an unintended consequence?.” Cognition vol. 129,2 (2013): 362-78. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.07.015.
Patel A. D., Iversen J.R. (2007) The linguistic benefits of musical abilities, “Trens in Cognitive Sciences”, vol. 11, pp. 369-372. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2007.08.003.
Patel, A. (2003). Language, music, syntax and the brain. Nat. Neurosci. 6, 674–681. doi: 10.1038/nn1082.
Peretz I., (2002). La musica e il cervello, in Nattiez J., M. Bent, R. Dalmonte, M. Baroni (a cura di), Enciclopedia della musica: Il sapere musicale, Einaudi, Torino vol. II pp. 241-270.
Pratt, A. C., Brady, S. (1988). Relation of phonological awareness to reading disability in children and adults. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol 80(3), Sep 1988, 319-323
Proverbio A. M. (2020). Neuroscienze cognitive della musica. Milano: Zanichelli.
Rauscher F. H., Shaw J. L. (1993). Music and spatial task performance doi: 10.1038/365611a0.
Scaglioso C. M., (2008). Suonare come parlare, Linguaggi e neuroscienze. Roma: Armando
Schellenberg E. (2004). Music lessons enhance IQ. Psychological science, 15, doi: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00711.x.
Schneider, W., Roth, E., & Ennemoser, M. (2000). Training phonological skills and letter knowledge in children at risk for dyslexia: a comparison of three kindergarten intervention programs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 284–295.
Sloboda J. (1988). La mente musicale, Bologna: Il Mulino.
Suzuki S. (2009). Crescere con la musica. Milano:Volontè &co.
Tomatis A., (1995). L’orecchio e il linguaggio, Pavia: Xenia.
Trevarthen, C. (1998). The concept and foundations of infant intersubjectivity. In S. Bråten (Ed.), Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny (pp. 15–46). Cambridge University Press.
Wallin N. L., Merker B., Brown S., (2001). The origin of music, London: MIT Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32043/gsd.v6i1.553
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Giornale Italiano di Educazione alla Salute, Sport e Didattica Inclusiva

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Italian Journal of Health Education, Sports and Inclusive Didactics
ISSN printed: 2532-3296