Can Music Help Teens Focus on Schoolwork?

For some teens, sitting in a silent room and studying is torture. For these learners, music may be the answer. Old schools of thought may tell you that to learn effectively, teens need silent, stimulation-free environments, but contemporary research suggests otherwise. If used effectively, music might actually be a tool to enhance your teen̵7;s focus.

  1. Listener Differences

    • Does music help all teens focus? Not necessarily. Every teen is different, so while the repeat of a musical refrain could help some pay better attention to their trig homework, it won̵7;t have this effect on all. If your teen has ADHD, music could prove helpful, says Peter Quily, a coach who focuses on attention deficit disorder. Quily states that background noise, such as music, can make focusing on boring or repetitive tasks easier for sufferers of ADHD, because it helps control dopamine levels. This benefit is not universal, however, because some find the music distracting. To find out if music helps your teen, let your teen listen to music and monitor his rate of work. The next day, try this without music.

    Science of Happy

    • For music lovers, listening to music can produce feelings of happiness. This happiness, which is the result of increased dopamine levels in the brain, can up productivity, says Dr. Amit Sood, a physician of integrative medicine at The Mayo Clinic, as cited in The New York Times article, ''The Power of Music, Tapped in a Cubicle.'' When teens are happy, their minds wander less, making it easier for them to do things they normally disdain -- like homework.

    Word-Free Tunes

    • The type of music your teen listens to as he works might affect his productivity. Music with lyrics could prove distracting. As Kimberly Sena Moore, author of ̶0;Your Musical Self̶1; notes in the article, "Music and Productivity: 5 Ideas for Using Music To Boost Performance," in Psychology Today, music with lyrics activates the language centers in teens̵7; brains, potentially interfering with other tasks in which they are engaged.

    Teen̵7;s Choice

    • Though a constant stream of classical music may work wonders for some, for a teen who loathes these strings-rich tunes, they might not be the best option. To produce the happiness from which productivity will result, your teen needs to listen to music she likes ̵1; even if this music has words, which is normally ill advised. Discuss the risks of listening to music with lyrics with your teen, then let her select the soundtrack, trusting her to make the best choice for herself.

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