Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash
According to a team of researchers at Florida International University’s Center for Children and Families, listening to music while studying may help some children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Their study set out to examine how distractions – such as music and television – affect children with ADHD. The research studied 153 male students in total: those with ADHD, both medicated and non-medicated, as well as a control group of male students who were not diagnosed with ADHD.
Traditionally, parents and teachers believe distractors only have negative effects, and Pelham himself, before the study, believed that music would have negative or no effects.
“If a kid says he can watch TV and focus, it’s just not true,” said Director, William E. Pelham Jr. “But with music we actually discovered, in most cases, it didn’t really affect the children.” While a few were distracted by music, the majority were not. “And in some cases,” he added, “we found listening to music helped the kids with ADHD to complete their work. Actually for this subgroup, the effect of music on them was nearly as effective as medication.”
“Rather than just assuming it’s better for a child with ADHD to do their homework in complete silence, it may help their concentration to let them listen to music,” Pelham said. “If parents want to know if listening to music will help their child’s performance in school, they should try it. If a child’s performance improves after trying the music for a period of time, then that’s a pretty good indicator that the child falls into the subgroup of children that benefit from music.”
SOURCES:
Florida International University: https://news.fiu.edu/2012/music-can-improve-concentration-in-some-children-with-adhd
National Library of Medicine: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21695447/
DETAILS:
| BENEFIT: | IMPROVED BEHAVIOUR & CONCENTRATION |
| TARGET GROUP: | YOUNG PEOPLE |
| AGE: | 7-13 YEARS-OLD |
| MUSIC TYPE: | GENERAL |
| TYPE OF STUDY: | ACADEMIC RESEARCH |
| NOs INVOLVED: | 153 |
| PERIOD OF STUDY: | 6 WEEKS |
| DATE: | 2011 |
| PLACE: | USA |
DETAILS:
Music Education Works 