From the moment they’re born – in fact, probably even before that – children love music.

It’s an intuitive love, with more than a thousand research studies demonstrating how music training can boost a child’s intelligence, emotional and social development, and self-esteem.

This power is highlighted in a new book, The Music Miracle by musician Liisa Henrikkson-Macauley, which stresses to parents of young children how music training – even less than an hour a week – can unlock a child’s full potential.

“Through my extensive collation of research, I discovered that the only activity proven to increase your child’s intelligence is music training – started between babyhood and seven,” says Liisa, pointing out that 96 per cent of brain growth occurs during this period.

“This is where the brain is at its sensitive development phase, and the neural connections are formed. “I wanted to share this message so parents can find a way to help their children that’s not only fun, but makes a genuine difference.”

A mother of a six-year-old boy herself, Liisa studied 1,200 research papers into the effects of music training.

“Some of the most recent highlights include the discovery that early music learning gives babies an advantage in mental age, communication and wellbeing, that it develops the full-scale creativity of preschoolers, and that it directly boosts their language abilities.”

A University of Toronto study in 2004 was the first to find that music training boosts children’s IQ – six-year-olds given a year of voice or piano lessons saw a significantly larger increase in IQ than a control group. Further studies have suggested that the longer a child takes music lessons, the higher their IQ and the better their performance at school.

Liisa is keen to point out, however, that this powerful effect, thought to come from the music training helping to develop the connection between both halves of the brain, doesn’t come from children simply listening to music. There needs to be proper training to make children understand aspects of music like rhythm, melody and notation.

To help parents with this music training, Liisa has produced Moosicology – a pack containing CDs featuring educational audio tracks, a children’s song book and a parent’s guide (available online from moosicology.com, £47).

However, parents can also try music training on their own; playing songs with different time signatures and bouncing babies to the beat of a song, both shown to improve rhythm and social skills.

When babies start toddling, they can be encouraged to ‘investigate’ instruments like the piano, and within a year or two they can move to different beats, clap to them, and be encouraged to recognise when one pitch is higher or lower than another.

The Music Miracle is published by Earnest House, £16.99. Available now.