The capacity for language is distinctly human. It allows us to communicate, learn things, create culture, and think better. Because of its complexity, scientists have long struggled to understand the neurobiology of language.

While musicality and working memory are mostly treated as clear predictors of foreign language learning ability, the relationship between brain morphology and language aptitude is far from obvious.

To keep a beat, our brains have to get the auditory and motor cortices to first synchronise and then maintain that synchronisation as small things change in the music. To maintain a rhythm, our brains need to do all of that plus constantly monitor how the rhythm is fitting into the beat. It looks easy, however, it is very hard.

Music has been used as an intervention around the world to help students, and inevitably whole communities, who are living in challenging circumstances.

This article is packed with fantastic research from the MARCS Institute in Sydney, Australia. It is vital to study the first developmental steps in all areas of life.

The results of this study found that early childhood music training can lead to associated improvements in both musical skills and language skills!

In this study, they found that 9-month-old babies who had one month of exposure to directed music listening improved not only their auditory processing of music but also their language!

What is musical play? Is it bashing on an upturned drum in the playground or banging pots and pans on the kitchen floor? Well, it can be both.

Here is a great article to take along to your next staff meeting or use as a discussion point with other teachers in your school, particularly if it is a primary or elementary school.

Here is a fascinating new theoretical paper about the relationship between rhythm and language abilities. A theoretical study is one that brings together all the relevant current research and puts forward a theory of, in this case, how two concepts may be connected.

In a new study, it has been found that preschoolers who have better vocabulary and attention skills are more likely to do better at school. This is not a shocking finding. Early childhood educators have been aware of this connection and indeed school readiness programs focus on building both of these skills.