“What about music? Can my kid really concentrate on homework with those earbuds on?”  

When I run parent workshops on study habits, this is always one of the first questions during Q&A — perhaps indicative of some parent-child friction around this topic!

So does music help us focus or does it distract us from learning? It depends.

• It depends on the type of music.
• It depends on what task you are doing.
• It depends on other distractions in the environment.
• It depends on the individual student.

Ultimately, we want to turn a question like this over to our children to figure out as they work on developing study habits. But since knowledge is power, here are four insights you can share with tweens and teens in your life:

1) Multitasking is a Myth

Our brains are not wired for multi-tasking. If two tasks both require attention, our brain will toggle back and forth between them like a ping pong ball. 

That doesn’t mean we can’t do two things at the same…