FROM the moment they’re born – in fact, probably even before that – children love music. It’s an intuitive love, and research shows how music training can boost a child’s intelligence, emotional and social development, and self-esteem.

A new book, The Music Miracle by musician Liisa Henrikkson- Macauley, stresses how the only activity proven to increase your child’s intelligence is music training – started between babyhood and seven.

“I wanted to share this message so parents can find a way to help their children that’s not only fun, but makes a genuine difference.”

A mother of a six-year-old boy herself, Henriksson-Macauley studied 1,200 research papers into the effects of music training.

“Some of the most recent highlights include the discovery that early music learning gives babies an advantage in mental age, communication and wellbeing, that it develops the full-scale creativity of preschoolers, and that it directly boosts their language abilities.”

A University of Toronto study in 2004 was the first to find that music training boosts children’s IQ – sixyear- olds given a year of voice or piano lessons saw a significantly larger increase in IQ than a control group. Further studies have suggested that the longer a child takes music lessons, the higher their IQ and the better their performance at school.

Henriksson-Macauley is keen to point out that this powerful effect, thought to come from the music training helping to develop the connection between both halves of the brain, doesn’t come from children simply listening to music. There needs to be proper training to make children understand aspects of music such as rhythm, melody and notation.

“Simply listening to music and expecting to get an intelligence boost is like watching athletes on TV and expecting to get fitter,” she explains.

“You have to do some work to get it – but children love learning music, as long as it’s in a fun way.”

To help parents with this music training, Henrikkson-Macauley has produced Moosicology – a pack containing CDs featuring educational audio tracks, a children’s song book and a parent’s guide (available from moosicology.com, £47).

“It’s so fundamental for young children to learn the basic music skills. Music is a universal language, and learning it gives so many brain benefits..”

  • The Music Miracle is published by Earnest House, £16.99