TY - JOUR AU - Brandt, Anthony AU - Slevc, Robert AU - Gebrian, Molly PY - 2012 M3 - Hypothesis and Theory TI - Music and Early Language Acquisition JO - Frontiers in Psychology UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00327 VL - 3 SN - 1664-1078 N2 - Language is typically viewed as fundamental to human intelligence. Music, while recognized as a human universal, is often treated as an ancillary ability – one dependent on or derivative of language. In contrast, we argue that it is more productive from a developmental perspective to describe spoken language as a special type of music. A review of existing studies presents a compelling case that musical hearing and ability is essential to language acquisition. In addition, we challenge the prevailing view that music cognition matures more slowly than language and is more difficult; instead, we argue that music learning matches the speed and effort of language acquisition. We conclude that music merits a central place in our understanding of human development. ER -