I have posted on this board before about the benefit my son has received from being in a music program. I praised it for its instillment of discipline, its improvement on his timing, and its increase in his self esteem. It was not until recently that I noticed its biggests contribution-an increase in his memory. A while back I posted his 4th grade results on the WRAML which were very dismal, don’t remember presise numbers just that they were in the high 70th percentiles. This really showed in his school work, he struggled daily to remember even the simplest of things. He would be taught something get it and then forget it a short time later. He constinatly had to be retaught things. We were forever buying him new school supplies because he forget where he put them. He has been in the band since the 7th grade, he has also in LD classes for readig, writing, and math in 7th and 8th grade and I know not all his gains can be contributed to one or the other. I just know is memory is so much better. You can now teach him something and it sticks. He even remembered the story of the Diary of Anne Frank he read last year at the begining of this year. Friday we went to his first football game, the band plays a pregame show and a half time show, and that is when it hit me. They were playing all the songs from memory, they did not have sheet music at all. Not only were they playing bueatifully they were also exacuting very delicate foot work, weaving patterns, making designs, and never missing a beat. I was totally floored. I asked my son about it later on and he said yes, we are required to memorize the songs that we play. We get to look at the sheet music the first few times we play and then the sheet music is taken away. He says it was a real struggle for him at first and he was constitantly messing up, but that after a while it just started to fall into place. He says he has noticed he can remember other things better as well. What a nice side little benefit from something that he enjoys. Thought this observation was well worth sharing.
How amazing. My son’s IM tutor has been encouraging me to get him music lessons. I have resisted because we are so busy with therapy and school work. He also plays soccer in the fall. I notice that he is singing post IM. He was holding his puppy this morning and singing songs to him!!! I do want to encourage this but will have to think through the scheduling issue.
You know I took piano lessons for a number of years as a kid but never could memorize music. I was pretty good at piano and have no general memory issues. So I am really impressed!!!
Beth