A new study shows that music can help children with ADHD concentrate and complete their work. It was found during the study that music helped the kids better than medication.
"If a kid says he can watch TV and focus, it's just not true. With television, we found out what we needed to know. But with music we actually discovered, in most cases, it didn't really affect the children," said William E. Pelham Jr from FIU Center for Children and Families and lead author of the study in a statement.
It was also found that while some kids were distracted by music, it worked well in increasing the concentration level for most of the children. "And in some cases we found listening to music helped the kids with ADHD to complete their work. Actually for this subgroup, the effect of music on them was nearly as effective as medication," Pelham said.
Music compared to television has profound impact in improving a kid's poor social skills and learning abilities. Pelham with his detailed study found if music is actually helping the kid with ADHD in his concentration levels then parents must try that process. "Rather than just assuming it's better for a child with ADHD to do their homework in complete silence, it may help their concentration to let them listen to music," he said.
Pelham also noted how helpful it can be for parents to try this theory with their kids who have ADHD and how it would actually help them concentrate just as effectively as medication.
"If parents want to know if listening to music will help their child's performance in school, they should try it. In psychology, we have what we call single-subject-design studies," Pelham said. "Basically, it's trial and error. If a child's performance improves after trying the music for a period of time, then that's a pretty good indicator that the child falls into the subgroup of children that benefit from music."
According to an article published in the Pediatrics and Child Health there are few music legends who displayed signs of ADHD but overcame with the help of music. Musicians like Wolfang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Lennon, while Mozart also displayed signs of Tourette's syndrome which is another type type of disorder.
