Maia Szalavitz, TIME Healthland (May 2012)
"Want a Less Fussy, Easier-to-Soothe, Kinder Child? Make Music! "
The actively-trained infants were less distressed by frustration, showed less anxiety about new experiences, smiled and laughed more and were easier to soothe. The researchers write, the active classes led to more positive parent-infant social interactions compared to the passive classes.
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Anne McIlroy, The Globe and Mail (July 2011)
"El Sistema and the Transformational Power of Music"
“People focus so much on cognitive benefits. I think there are some, but I don't think they are as large as people would like them to be," says Laurel Trainor, a scientist at McMaster University in Hamilton who studies music and the developing brain. "I think the social and emotional benefits are just enormous and we are just starting to comprehend that."
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Andrea Gordon, Parent Central (March, 2011)
"The Hidden Agenda of Bedtime Stories"
“[Young] brains are getting wired to integrate the senses,” says Laurel Trainor, professor and director of the auditory development lab at McMaster University. She has found that even young babies can distinguish the difference between songs sung as lullabies and those used in play.
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Victoria Fenner, CBC Radio 2 In Concert (2010)
"Musical Babies on CBC"
“Music educators will tell you, 'don't give [young children] complex rhythms, because it's very very difficult for them to learn. Wait until they're even older before you give them anything that's complicated'. But what we're finding is that young babies can do the complex rhythms, they can hear them perfectly well.... We're showing that what infants are listening to and the particular experiences they're having even before one year of age, is already wiring up their brain in a particular way. And in fact the brain is probably most plastic at these early ages, and so maybe we should be thinking about what kinds of music programs we want to have for very young children."
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Parents Canada (August, 2010)
"Expose Your Baby to Music"
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Your child is probably not the next Mozart or even the next Justin Bieber. But don’t turn off the karaoke machine just yet. A musical environment plays an important rolein nurturing brain development, if not a future career.
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Tina Barseghian and Jessica Kelmon (July, 2010)
"Secrets to Raising Smart Kids: Play Music"
"Learning music isn't going to take your child from average to a genius, but it can help her be a better learner," says Laurel Trainor, a professor of psychology, neuroscience, and behavior at McMaster University and director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind in Ontario, Canada. "Learning how to play music actually has an effect on how the brain gets wired when it comes to memory and attention", says Trainor."
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Phillip F. Schewe, Inside Science News Service (November, 2009)
"Turn On, Tune In, Develop? "
"For most people music is an enjoyable, although momentary, form of entertainment. But for those who seriously practiced a musical instrument when they young, perhaps when they played in a school orchestra or even a rock band, the musical experience can be something more. Recent research shows that a strong correlation exists between musical training for children and certain other mental abilities."
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The Boston Globe (July, 2008)
"Can't Get it Out of My Head"
"I've never felt so paralyzed standing before my CD collection as the day I brought my newborn son home from the hospital and decided to play him his very first music. So much was at stake. Should it be modern or Baroque? Orchestral or opera? Would Mozart make him smarter? Would Schoenberg instill in him revolutionary tendencies? Would Wagner make him loathe his Jewish roots?"
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John Terauds, Toronto Star (October, 2007)
"Melodic Medication"
"We instinctively know our favourite song or the perfect piece to fit or change a mood. We pump up volume and tempo to get our adrenaline flowing. We look for slow melodies and easy harmonies to unwind after a stressful day. Could it be that this is the ultimate in psychological self-medication?"
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Globe and Mail (September 20, 2006)
"Grey cells dig music lessons, scans show"
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McMaster Times (Fall 2006)
"Music and the Mind"
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McMaster Times (Fall, 2005 Issue)
"Born to Boogie"
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National Post (June, 2005)
"Babies Groove to the Beat"
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New York Times (June, 2005)
"Parents Can Help Babies Get Rhythm"
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CBC Radio, Quirks & Quarks (June 15, 2002)
"We Got the Music In Us"
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