This new claim emanates from research at Northwestern University, Chicago,  which shows that musical instruments increase the brain’s sensitivity to sounds including speech.

American researchers claim to have found a link between musical ability and the capacity of the nervous system to take in sound patterns. Music lessons can therefore have a direct impact on a child’s ability to learn languages. Exposure to music could be beneficial to the brain in its developmental stages and would have advantages for all children, including those who are dyslexic or autistic. Music can help children to communicate and interact with those around them, to relax or to express emotions.

Daily Telegraph

March 2010

Photo Courtesy of  Sara Bjork

It can even increase IQ by seven points in both children and adults, according to researchers.
Experts said there is growing evidence that musicians have structurally and functionally different brains compared with non-musicians – in particular, the areas of the brain used in processing and playing music.

These parts of the brain that control motor skills, hearing, storing audio information and memory become larger and more active when a person learns how to play an instrument and can apparently improve day to day actions such as being alert, planning and emotional perception
The full research is published in the online publication Faculty of 1000 Biology Reports.

Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent, Daily Telegraph

October 28 2009 

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Photo Courtesy of  MinivanNinja

It’s easy to forget things if memories are not retained by linking them to what you already know or reviewing them several times. Memories are formed by electrical signals making connections between nerve cells so that they form a network. It’s possible to improve your memory using special techniques that strengthen this network, making it easier to recall things that would otherwise be difficult to remember.

Top tips to improve your memory:

Pay attention
Memory is made up of three sections – sensory, short-term and long-term. All the data gathered from your senses enters the sensory memory – from here any information that’s ignored is thrown out, whilst information that you pay attention to passes on into the short-term memory. You can’t remember something that you never even knew, so if you don’t pay attention, information will never enter your short-term memory. If you want to improve your memory and take in information, it is vital to concentrate and not allow yourself to be distracted.
Chunking
Some of the things you try to memorise mean nothing to you – they may be isolated facts or strings of numbers. Short-term memory has a limit of about five items, so dividing up long sequences of data into more easily remembered “chunks” helps you to remember them. This is the way that most people remember telephone numbers.
Make associations
Making links between objects – called association – can help improve your memory. You can make associations that match numbers to pictures, organise words into groups or link a person with an image so that you never forget a name – anything that makes it easier for you to remember. One way to memorise a list is to visualise a journey that you often take. Link each landmark on the journey with an item on your list – the stranger the result, the easier it is to remember! Then go through the journey in your head to remember the items.
Mnemonics
Another trick for remembering a set of words is to use their first letters to make up a sentence or mnemonic. For example, “map vipers eat many jungle snacks using nails” gives you the sequence of the planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. It’s a ridiculous sentence, but these are sometimes the most memorable.

For more tips on how to improve your memory, plus loads of other brain training techniques and insight, check out ‘Train your Brain to be a Genius’. Find out how your amazing brain works and explore the incredible potential of your mind. Put your grey matter to the test with puzzles, games and optical illusions to fine-tune your brainy bits.

The article was supplied by Dorling Kindersley, who are publishers of the new children’s book ‘Train your Brain to be a Genius’

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According to recent broadcasts, Humpty Dumpty was not irreparably damaged in his great fall and Little Miss Muffet has no particular fear of spiders.

The examples have been picked up in recent programmes on the network’s CBeebies children’s channel.

Last Friday’s edition of Something Special, aimed at children with special needs but popular with under-fives, included a version of Humpty Dumpty in which the lyrics were changed.

Instead of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men being unable to put him together again, they “made Humpty happy again”.

Tom Harris, the Labour MP for Glasgow South, who watched the show with his sons aged five and three, described the reworked version as “pathetic”.

He was also critical of a previous episode of Big Cook Little Cookin which Little Miss Muffet welcomes a spider that sits down beside her.

In his latest blog post, and with more than a hint of sarcasm, Mr Harris railed against what he sees as the excesses of political correctness. He wrote: “For goodness sake. Obviously children will find it far too violent, distressing and horrific that Humpty should not be put back together again. This is what happens when adults try to make these kinds of judgements.”

Mr Harris added: “So CBeebies rewrite well-known nursery rhymes and fairy tales so that Humpty Dumpty ‘is happy again’ rather than being left shattered and at the mercy of surgically incompetent horses. And Little Miss Muffet, the most famous arachnophobe in children’s literature, befriends the spider instead of getting her father to swish it with a newspaper.”

The BBC defended its decision to change the words, which it said was for “creative” reasons and not to sanitise the rhymes.

A spokesman pointed out that the nursery rhymes in their original form were maintained in full of the CCBeebies website.

She said: “We play nursery rhymes with their original lyrics all the time and the small change to Humpty Dumpty was done for no other reason that being creative and entertaining.”

Meanwhile, the children’s favourite Noddy will return later this month in his first official new book for more than 45 years.

But there will be no mention of the golliwogs, the black-faced wooden dolls that featured in his previous adventures, to avoid controversy.

The book Noddy and the Farmyard Muddlehas been written by Sophie Smallwood, 39, who is the granddaughter of Noddy’s creator, Enid Blyton.

She considered including the golliwogs, but decided against it because the characters now have racist connotations that did not exist when Noddy was first written in 1949.

Written by Paul Stokes, The Daily Telegraph, 19th October 2009

Photo courtesy of Wavecult

Eyes glued to the colourful animation on the screen, she clicks her responses to auditory cues she hears on her headphones, racing confidently through different games.

Each game targets a different cognitive or language skill: memory, sequencing, sound discrimination, pitch, vocabulary, comprehension and grammar. There are thousands of combinations of games customised to one’s abilities and Fidelia plays five sets today.

The games, part of a brain development software called Fast ForWord, require intense concentration, but the Primary 2 pupil seems to enjoy her session.

Her mother, Mrs Jess Chan, 33, a housewife, said: ‘Fidelia wasn’t always such a confident child. As a preschooler, she was quiet, very timid and awkward. Her language and motor skills were weak.’

Concerned, Mrs Chan sent her daughter for brain training classes. Each one-hour session at BrainFit Studio in Thomson Road, where Fidelia attends the classes, costs $70.

The Beacon Primary School pupil now turns in excellent school results. She speaks articulately and is also an avid reader. A Facebook user, she has recently taken up chess.

Meanwhile, at the Little Neuro Tree centre in Bugis, sisters Zelia Ang, 30 months old, and Phoelia Ang, 10 months old, are attending brain training classes for babies and toddlers.

The focus here is on learning three languages – English, Mandarin and either Malay or Japanese – as well as coordination and social skills. The fees are $550 to $600 for 12 one-hour lessons.

In one room, Phoelia and two other babies, each held lovingly by their mother or caregiver, lie on the straw mats covering the floor.

Their teacher tells them about the weather. ‘It’s cloudy today. The sky’s full of clouds! Come, let’s touch the clouds!” she says, as she passes around a piece of felt with a fleecy white cloud stuck on it. The babies touch the cloud with adult help.

The lesson moves to vocabulary. As the little ones watch attentively while kicking their feet, their teacher flashes giant picture cards in quick order, rattling off a list of words at the same time: asparagus, carrot, corn, beans, brinjal….

Zelia, in the toddler class, is busy buttoning little wheels onto a train as her teacher cheers her on in Japanese. Her mother, Madam Hazen Lim, 33, is encouraging her too.

Said Madam Lim, a housewife: ‘This programme really stimulates the child’s brain and parents interact with their children. Zelia is picking up Japanese, Mandarin and English well and Phoelia is very responsive to language.’

Can a 10-month-old learn three languages just from a one-hour class every week? Can young children learn to read, process information and do comprehension questions just from computer games? How much can the brain do, really?

Quite a lot, said DrRoby Marcou, a senior consultant in paediatrics neurology at National University Hospital.
‘Meaningful learning opportunities in early childhood allow the brain to develop rich brain connections, which set the stage for active thinking and learning beyond childhood,’ she explained.

As for brain training sessions, she said there is not enough research to substantiate most claims. However, some programmes might help some children, particularly in the areas of visual or auditory attention.

She advocates, instead, ‘rich, diverse play and conversation’ as the best stimulation for brain development in children.

 By K. Malathy from http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20091001-171160.html

Photos courtesy of Dan Biddle and World Bank Photo Collection