cover image The Music Advantage: How Music Helps Your Child Develop, Learn, and Thrive

The Music Advantage: How Music Helps Your Child Develop, Learn, and Thrive

Anita Collins. Tarcherperigee, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-593-33212-2

Collins (The Butterfly Effect), associate fellow of Music, Mind and Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne, makes a convincing case that music aids in every stage of human development in this eye-opening survey. Drawing from research and her own experience, she surveys the ways music enhances learning, starting in infancy when “all sound is music-like.” In early childhood, music-based learning activities “engage multiple senses” and help expand a child’s attention span, while middle school children who stick with music performance exhibit better resilience later in life, and high school students can learn to value creativity and innovation over perfection via music programs. Each chapter begins with real-life examples, often from Collins’s work teaching educators how to incorporate music into their classrooms, covering such topics as how music connects babies to their caregivers, how a cognitive exercise such as keeping a beat and stomping at the same time can prepare children for reading, how music can build confidence (listening to it releases dopamine), and how mastering an instrument teaches problem-solving skills. Easy to digest and packed full of fascinating observations, this will leave parents and educators eager to incorporate music into their child’s life. Agent: Maggie Thompson, Allen & Unwin. (Mar.)