In the United States, music is among the most frequently cut elements of early childhood and elementary school curricula when budgets tighten. This is a profound policy error — one that is consistently and clearly contradicted by the research on what music does to the developing brain. For parents, educators, and policymakers who want the evidence, here it is.
A 2016 meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Psychology reviewed 35 studies and found that music training in early childhood was significantly associated with better phonological awareness, reading skills, and processing speed — over and above the effects of general cognitive ability.
Nina Kraus's Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University has spent two decades documenting how music training physically changes the brain's auditory pathway — producing neural responses to sound that are faster, more precise, and more stable. These neural changes transfer directly to language processing, making music-trained children better at hearing the subtle differences between speech sounds that underlie reading.
A study by Anita Collins at the University of Canberra found that the act of children playing a musical instrument activated every known region of the brain simultaneously — and that the structural and functional neural differences in music-trained children were particularly pronounced in the corpus callosum (connecting the brain's hemispheres) and prefrontal cortex (executive function).
Beyond the academic case, music in the early childhood classroom is one of the most powerful social-emotional learning tools available. Group singing and musical activities require:
- •Synchronized attention: Everyone listens to the same beat, teaching children to regulate their attention to a shared external referent
- •Turn-taking: Call-and-response songs formalize conversational reciprocity
- •Emotional attunement: Singing together produces oxytocin, the bonding hormone, building a sense of group belonging and trust
- •Self-regulation: Maintaining a steady beat while singing requires sustained attention and impulse control
- •Prosocial behavior: Research by Kirschner and Tomasello found that toddlers who participated in joint music-making were more likely to spontaneously help an adult afterward — a measure of prosocial motivation
Not all classroom music produces the developmental benefits described above. Research points to specific practices that maximize impact:
- •Active participation over passive listening: Children making music themselves (singing, clapping, playing instruments) produce far greater neural and developmental effects than listening to recordings
- •Integration with curriculum: Songs that connect to classroom learning themes, vocabulary words, and concepts being taught amplify learning across domains
- •Daily frequency: Brief daily music experiences (10–15 minutes) produce stronger developmental effects than weekly extended sessions
- •Responsive and improvisational: Allowing children to contribute to songs — changing words, adding verses, inventing rhythms — develops musical agency and creative thinking
- •Trained educators or specialists: While any teacher can lead a circle song, the depth of musical experience for children increases significantly when teachers have training in music and child development
If your child's preschool or kindergarten has limited or no formal music program, here is how to compensate and advocate:
- •Supplement at home: Daily singing, musical play, and music-enriched activities at home can substantially close the gap left by inadequate school music programs
- •Request information: Ask your child's school what music instruction children receive. Schools are often surprised by parent interest and may increase music time in response to demand
- •Use community resources: Many public libraries, community centers, and music schools offer free or low-cost early childhood music programs
- •Advocate at the policy level: School board meetings, parent-teacher associations, and curriculum review processes are appropriate venues for advocating for music as a core component of early childhood education