In order to present both sides of the music training for speech and reading argument, I thought I’d comment on another study on this topic.  Recent music neuroscience studies have shown that children who are engaged in music are changed by that engagement. For instance, children involved in music programs in school have been shown to have higher standardized test scores (Johnson & Memmot, 2006), children who practice and played piano have higher cortical responses to piano than non-musicians (Pantev et al. 1998), and children trained in music increase gray matter in areas of the motor cortex, auditory cortex, and corpus callosum (Hyde et al. 2009). Continue reading →