Preschoolers who take music lessons may be on their way to doing better in math, chess and even reading maps, a study suggests.

It found that 3-year olds who took keyboard and singing lessons for just a few months showed gains on a test of ability to reason about how objects relate to each other.

Such “spatial reasoning” is handy for a variety of tasks, including higher math, geometry and engineering, said researcher Frances Rauscher of the University of California at Irvine.

Music training “could have really enormous significance for education” she said. Although you’re not going to make your child into an Einstein,” music training may help children develop their spatial reasoning, she said.

Musical training may help by developing communication pathways in the brain that are also useful for spatial reasoning, she said.

The study involved 22 middle income 3-year-olds from two California preschools. They were given weekly keyboard lessons, each lasting 10 to 15 minutes, and daily keyboard practice. They also received 30-minute daily singing lessons.

Their spatial reasoning was tested by having them assemble pieces of puzzles showing objects like dogs and cars without telling them what the final image would be.

Rauscher, whose work was financed by a private foundation and music industry groups, spoke before presenting the results Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.