Introduction to Psychology 10th Edition by Rod Plotnik,Haig Kouyoumdjian

Exercise 14

Does Music Improve Language Skills in Children?
"Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?" Sesame Street has been using music to teach children language for over 40 years. We know children enjoy music. Infants attentively listen to their parents singing to them. Children often sing loudly to themselves and with their peers at school. They seem to be naturally wired for music. Many educators, parents, and television show creators have assumed singing helps children learn language faster. But the real question is whether music simply makes learning more accessible and entertaining for children, or whether it actually advances the learning of language.
A recent research study examined the relationship between musical training and language skills, and its results are really interesting. In this study, adults wore electrodes on their scalp to measure brain wave activity while watching and listening to a cellist perform and a person speak. The adults in the study consisted of musicians (with varying years of experience) and nonmusicians. Researchers originally expected the musicians to have an advantage (greater brain activity) only when it came to responding to the cellist and not to speech. However, the results showed that musicians had greater responses in their brains to both music and speech. Specifically, there was a positive correlation between years of musical training and activity in brain areas responsible for speech and communication.
These research findings indicate that musical training improves the same processing skills in the brain and nervous system needed for speaking and reading. If you consider the skills involved in learning music, this finding makes perfect sense. Music training requires the use of many senses, such as watching other musicians, reading lips, touching, and hearing the music. Singing, for example, is a phenomenal example of multisensory learning. When children sing, they use their ears to listen to the sounds and voices around them, their eyes to watch the movement of others, and their entire bodies to develop rhythm and coordination. One beneficial outcome of this multisensory process is that it really facilitates learning. Generally, the more senses involved, the more learning takes place. Over years of research it has become clear that musical training exercises the very same brain areas necessary for language skills. Teaching letters and words to children through songs is a very effective learning strategy and it helps make learning much more fun! Research clearly supports the work Sesame Street has being doing for decades: teaching children language through song and music. It turns out that Sesame Street and other similar children's television and DVD programs have been teaching language skills the right way all along.
Question
What type of learning takes place as children listen to their parents sing?