The arts in early childhood, as seen in an Introduction to the Visual Arts: Experience and Learning Series, are integral to the curriculum in preschool and pre-K programs everywhere. However, from Kindergarten on the arts are in jeopardy. In a time where electives and other so-called “non academic” courses are being cut from school budgets, educators need good news about the benefits of arts training.

The Dana Foundation sponsored a collaboration of cognitive neuroscientists from seven US universities who studied the connection between arts training and higher academic performance. Recently, the consortium reported their findings on the relationship between arts training and the brain’s ability to learn in other domains. The findings concluded that learning the arts can make students smart in other areas.

The group’s research studied how arts training can influence other cognitive processes and identified connections between areas of the brain and also explored the affect of differences in genes and temperament on the amount of improvement achieved.

Findings concluded that not only does training in performing arts and music training improve a student’s ability to manipulate information that extends to other disciplines, but that phonological awareness and geometrical representation correlate with music training. Memory improvement and the development of specific brain pathways are connected to music training and acting. Observational learning of dance may also transfer to other cognitive skills.

The study’s findings support the notion that in interest and participation in the arts “allows for sustained attention,” and that such training can work to improve cognition in other areas.