Will your child receive a sound education? Schools with a strong musical program may give students an academic edge, Long Island University researchers say. They found that second-graders taking twice-weekly piano lessons at school performed significantly better on vocabulary tasks than those who didn’t play a note. “The piano students improved their listening skills with music, and that may have helped them hear and store vocabulary words more efficiently for future use,” says study author Joseph Piro, Ph.D. While private lessons should do the trick, Piro believes that children may be more eager to learn an instrument if the instruction occurs in a group setting, such as in a class or at school.

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