Are Temporal and Tonal Musical Skills Related to Phonological Awareness and Literacy Skills? – Evidence From Two Cross-Sectional Studies With Children From Different Age Groups

Abstract

Temporal and spectral auditory processing abilities are required for efficient and unimpaired processing of speech and might thus be associated with the development of phonological and literacy skills in children. Indeed, studies with unselected children have found links between these basic auditory processing abilities and the development of phonological awareness, reading, and spelling. Additionally, associations between the processing of temporal or spectral/tonal information in music and phonological awareness/literacy have been reported, but findings concerning relations between music processing and spelling are rather sparse. To gain more insights into the specific, potentially age-dependent relevance of various temporal (e.g., rhythm, tempo) and tonal (e.g., pitch, melody) musical subdomains for phonological awareness and literacy, we adapted five music-processing tasks (three temporal, two tonal) for use with tablet computers and used them in two cross-sectional studies with German children from two age groups: Study 1 was conducted with preschool children (about 5 years of age; without formal reading and spelling instruction) and focused on associations between music processing and phonological awareness. In Study 2, third-graders (about 8 years of age) were investigated concerning relations between music processing, phonological awareness, reading comprehension, and spelling. In both studies, rhythm reproduction and pitch perception turned out to be significant predictors of phonological awareness in stepwise regression analyses. Although various associations between music processing and literacy were found for third-graders in Study 2, after phonological awareness was accounted for, only rhythm reproduction made a unique contribution to literacy skills, namely, to alphabetic spelling skills. Hence, both studies indicate that temporal (i.e., rhythm reproduction) and spectral/tonal (i.e., pitch perception) musical skills are distinctly and uniquely related to phonological awareness in children from different age groups (preschool vs. Grade 3). The finding that rhythm reproduction, an auditory temporal processing skill integrating perceptual and motor aspects of rhythm processing, was especially tightly linked to phonological awareness and literacy corroborates other findings on associations between rhythm processing and literacy development and is of interest from the viewpoint of current theories of developmental dyslexia. The potential relevance of our results for applied research concerning early diagnosis and training of literacy-related skills is discussed.

Processamento auditivo central e processos de leitura em crianças e adolescentes: revisão integrativa

“…Of the 46 studies selected for this review, 58.6% were international studies, 17 corresponded to cross-sectional observational studies, 4 experimental, 7 longitudinal, 2 exploratory, 14 control cases and 2 cohort. Another relevant data is that only 6 studies (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) did not perform comparisons between groups (Chart 1). In other words, these studies were carried out with children regularly enrolled in educational institutions (19)(20)(21)23,24) , or with children suspected of central auditory processing disorder (22) .…”

“…Another relevant data is that only 6 studies (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24) did not perform comparisons between groups (Chart 1). In other words, these studies were carried out with children regularly enrolled in educational institutions (19)(20)(21)23,24) , or with children suspected of central auditory processing disorder (22) . The other studies compared 2 (26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)34,(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)45,49,51,(54)(55)(56)(57)(58)61) , 3 (25,33,44,(46)(47)(48)50,52,53,59,60) or 5 (62) study groups.…”

“…Regarding the design of studies, it was observed that most of them presented cross-sectional designs (10,19,20,22,24,25,(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)37,38,49), followed by studies with case-control designs (39,(43)(44)(45)50,51,(53)(54)(55)(56)(58)(59)(60)(61) .…”

The challenge of ensuring effective early years music education by non-specialists

“…Such a hypothesis has support from neuroscientific research findings related to common features in (a) the sensory encoding of sound, (b) musical melodies and linguistic intonation contours, as well as (c) the interactions between linguistic and musical syntactic processing (Patel, 2008). A recent set of studies with two different age groups (5-year-olds and 8-year-olds) in Germany (Steinbrink, Knigge, Mannhaupt, Sallat, & Werkle, 2019) investigated temporal and spectral auditory processing abilities in children. In both studies, rhythm reproduction and pitch perception abilities were significant predictors of phonological awareness.…”

Auditory Stimulation Training With Technically Manipulated Musical Material in Preschool Children With Specific Language Impairments: An Explorative Study

“…Other approaches examined the impact of music training on language and early literacy skills. Those studies were based on different types of musical interventions, such as playing a musical instrument or singing, and included a wide scope of participants, ranging from infants to typically developed children over children with dyslexia and cochlear implants (Dege and Schwarzer, 2011; Francois et al, 2013; Fonseca-Mora et al, 2015; Gordon et al, 2015; Wiens and Gordon, 2018; Steinbrink et al, 2019). In summary, those studies provide consistent support for the inclusion of music instruction in early childhood (Gordon et al, 2015; Wiens and Gordon, 2018).…”