Neurodiversity 101: Why bang the drum for music!

How important is music to you?

Do you have a favourite piece of music that you love to play that energises you or calms you? Every time you a hear a certain piece of music does it makes you smile? Do you recall a time or place that you were with others when listening to a piece of music?Do you have a tune that gets stuck in your head... this is called an 'ear worm'! (*An earworm or brainworm, also known as sticky music or stuck song syndrome, is?a catchy or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies a person's mind even after it is no longer being played or spoken about.)

"If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound, That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour!" - Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

Over the last few years we have heard of the 'quiet decline of music in schools'.One of the top music schools in the UK also reported that there was an 80% decline in the number of young people playing the recorder in the past 10 years. The reality is that recorder playing can lead onto a whole range of other wind instruments and allows someone to get started playing music for around ￡10. How many of you ended up doing so and started out life tootling on your recorder? I absolutely loved playing the recorder as a child and felt saddened to read a few weeks ago that recorder playing could become extinct!

Music and language/social development

Does music help with language development? It is complex. In 1871, Darwin speculated that they might share a common evolutionary origin and there do seem to be some overlapping mechanisms (Patel 2012). Both require meaningful structures from specific elements e.g. phonemes and tones. The listener needs to extract some meaning from these different signals.

A small number of recent studies have suggested that effective music workshop provision for young adults with learning difficulties can bring wider social and emotional benefits, such as related to self-expression, confidence, and social skills (Diaz Abrahan et al., 2019;?MacGlone et al., 2020;?Wilson & MacDonald, 2019).

Listening to music...the "Mozart effect'?

Some of you may remember in the early 2000s there was a real buzz about exposing children ( and babies) to Mozart and it supposedly enhanced their visual spatial skills. There were games and programmes developed as a consequence of this. However in reality there was not research done on babies...The closest thing were some experimental studies with?rodents?that reported some cognitive improvements who were played Mozart’s Sonata K.448 during infancy. Compared to control groups who listened to alternative music (e.g., pieces by Philip Glass or Beethoven), rodents exposed to Mozart showed superior skills in navigating a maze (Rauscher et al 1998; Aoun et al 2005). I am not sure we can use this as the basis of playing Mozart to babies the whole time.. but it may not harm them!

Since then some research has concluded that it may not be a specific piece of music but what may be key is the impact of doing something you enjoy that then has a knock on effect. One experiment with children compared them listening to Mozart or listening to Stephen King. The results were best for the one that the students preferred. They suggested we called this the '"the pleasant and energizing experience effect.”

Music and motor development

I got interested in the power of using music to help children with coordination challenges/Developmental Coordination Disorder(Dyspraxia) many years ago when my child was young.

I wanted to find ways of improving their rhythm but in a pleasurable way. I didn't know a lot about music therapy and so explored its benefits.This is?the clinical use of music to accomplish individualized goals such as helping to reduce stress, improving mood and self-expression. It can include listening, singing, playing instruments, or composing music. It introduced my child to the drums. This encouraged both their hands to work together and follow a sequence of patterns. My child certainly had fun and they went onto to play the drums.Music not only enhances the social and cognitive skills in children of all ages but also encourages them to improve their fine motor skills which is especially important for children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (Dyspraxia) which 3-5% of children will have.

Motor skills relate to the ability to move and synchronize different muscles and bones of the body like the hands and fingers to accomplish routine and intricate tasks.

What have I found out more recently that my instinct relating to drumming being good for concentration and co-ordination may have a real impact and lead to brain changes. A paper in 202 by Cahart and colleagues actually showed that an 8 week intervention study with adolescents on the autism spectrum/autistic were given drum lessons twice a week compared to a group of adolescents with autism/on the autism spectrum who didn't. The results showed where there were improvements in drumming performance these were associated with a significant reduction in hyperactivity and inattention difficulties in drummers compared to the controls. Also the fMRI scan results demonstrated increased functional connectivity in some specific brain areas that are responsible for monitoring, and self-regulation! A paper in the previous year also by Bruchhage and colleagues in the journal Nature had also shown changes in brain structure as a consequence of learning to drum.

Rhythm in music translates to other areas of learning too.Rhythm helps organize events into predictable and coherent patterns. In music, rhythm is the primary element that creates the perception of time.?In speech, rhythm helps us select and extrapolate phonemes, syllables, words, and phrases from an ongoing speech stream.Having good rhythmic skills,appears to be important not only for music or dance but also for language and communication skills too.

Music and autism

In one randomized controlled trial, Sharda?et al. evaluated the effects of 8- to 12-week music intervention in 6- to 12-year-old children with autism, comparing music therapy to a non-music intervention to see whether music intervention would improve social communication skills and alter brain connectivity in any way.

Before and after the intervention, parents reported about their child’s behaviours, and children completed a resting state MRI scan. The music intervention used musical instruments, songs, and rhythmic cues whereas the non-music activities were a series of play-based activities that had been designed to be as structurally matched as possible to the music intervention.

Parents reported that children who were in the music intervention group (n = 24) had improvements in language, social relationships, and family quality of life compared with the control group (n = 23). I thought what was interesting that this was also seen on the brain scans with greater functional connectivity between auditory and subcortical regions and auditory and motor regions in the music versus non-music group and lower between auditory and visual areas. Greater connectivity between auditory and subcortical areas was associated with greater improvements in social communication scores. This is impressive that in a short period of time change was noted. However, it is a small study. There have been some recent studies seeing if autistic people/people on the autism spectrum don't have more ear worms... but this was not conclusive.

Music and ADHD

When you are focusing on playing your musical instrument you can't do much else. You need to hyperfocus. I think this can be a relaxing way of calming you. However it is probably only calming if it is something that gives you pleasure. There is an interesting small case series (Wilde et al, 2022) with children with ADHD which showed greater focus in moments of active music making and performance.?

There has also been some interesting work where in one study participants with ADHD who listened to music while completing mathematical problems solved more problems correctly when compared to the neurotypical control group not listening to music (e.g. Maloy & Peterson, 2014). There is also a study being undertaken at the moment to see if music does make a difference to planning and organisation with children with ADHD.

So what does this all mean?

I think it would be a real loss for children not be exposed to music and have the opportunity to learn an instrument in school for a whole range of reasons. I think for ND children and adults listening to music may also have other benefits including aiding focus and calming too.

What about you?

• Tell me music you love when you are working? such as a Spotify list
• What music do you love that makes you dance around your kitchen? e.g. Abba!
• What music do you listen to when you are chilling!e.g. Simon and Garfunkel and eclectic mix of classical music
• What do you listen to when you are wanting to go to sleep? e.g. Audibooks... for me such as Jane Austen

Blog Author

I am Amanda Kirby, CEO of?Do-IT Solutions?a tech-for-good company that delivers consultancy and guidance, training and web-based screening tools that have helped 10s of 1000s of people. We strive to deliver person-centered solutions relating to neurodiversity and wellbeing.

This week I gained 90,000+ subscribers so many thanks to all of you and for your feedback too. Do let me know what you like and what you want more of.

I am a mixed bag of experiences and skills and have 25+ years of working in the field of neurodiversity. I am a medical doctor, Professor, and have a Ph.D. in the field of neurodiversity; parent and grandparent to neurodivergent wonderful kids and am neurodivergent myself.

Theo Smith and I wrote the UK award-winning book?Neurodiversity at Work?Drive Innovation, Performance, and Productivity with a Neurodiverse Workforce. My 10th book came out called?Neurodiversity and Education?in March 2023. I was also voted one of the top 20 Thinkers by?HR magazine for 2022!