It examined the impact on children from birth to five years of taking part in regular, structured, active and creative music-making, led by an expert musician with skills in working with young children.
The report, Turning Their Ears On (Taylor and Clark, 2005), describes outcomes for children's learning in music and communication, language, mathematics, social, emotional, physical and cultural areas. In particular, two-year-olds were able to memorise and learn long sequences of words, phrases and sentences when they were attached to music - long before they can generally master the same skill in speech.
Taylor and Clark concluded that participation in a progressive, expertly delivered music curriculum greatly improves young children's capacity to develop skills and gives them a head start before going on to full-time education.
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