Associations between musical abilities and precursors of reading in preschool aged children

Abstract

The association between music and language, in particular, the overlap in their processing results in the possibility to use one domain for the enhancement of the other. Especially in the preschool years music may be a valuable tool to train language abilities (e.g., precursors of reading). Therefore, detailed knowledge about associations between musical abilities and precursors of reading can be of great use for designing future music intervention studies that target language-related abilities. Hence, the present study investigated the association between music perception as well as music production and precursors of reading. Thereby, not only phonological awareness, the mostly studied precursor of reading, was investigated, but also other precursors were examined. We assessed musical abilities (production and perception) and precursors of reading (phonological awareness, working memory, and rapid retrieval from long-term memory) in 55 preschoolers (27 boys). Fluid intelligence was measured and controlled in the analyses. Results showed that phonological awareness, working memory, and rapid retrieval from long-term memory were related to music perception as well as to music production. Our data suggest that several precursors of reading were associated with music perception as well as music production.

Musical rhythm and reading development: does beat processing matter?

“…This disagreement between studies may be due to testing different age groups, and points to the need to test at multiple ages with a comprehensive battery of both rhythm (beatbased and nonbeat-based) and reading-related measures. In order to systematically partial out variance associated with different factors and identify specific links between beat-based processing and reading development, measures should address the cognitive, perceptual, and linguistic mechanisms hypothesized to underlie a reading-rhythm relationship, namely: auditory working memory, [51][52][53] attention, 54 sensorimotor integration, 30 processing of precise temporal mechanisms, 1,2,31,55 and generation of predictions based on perceptual regularity. 56 As evident from Table 1, while multiple studies have shown links between rhythm and readingrelated skills, these studies predominantly included rhythm patterns with beat-based structure, thereby excluding the examination of the distinct role of beat-based (versus nonbeat-based) processing in these relations.…”

“…In this paper, we use the terms doi: 10.1111/nyas.13853 Table 1. Summary of child studies on links between rhythm processing and reading-related skills Reference Year N Age (years) PA Reading Rhythm measure Effect size Anvari et al 75 2002 100 4.7, 5.5 Y Y Same/different rhythm discrimination (beat-based patterns, 3-4 beats) 4 years: music (including rhythm)-PA r = 0.59 * , music-reading: r = 0.57 * 5 years: rhythm-PA: r = 0.33 * , rhythm-reading: r = -0.09 Degé et al 51 "beat-based" and "nonbeat-based" to refer to these rhythmic categories. a Beat-based rhythms have distinct psychological properties.…”

Training Early Literacy Related Skills: To Which Degree Does a Musical Training Contribute to Phonological Awareness Development?

“…In a recent study, Degé et al (2015) examined the associations between productive and receptive musical abilities and precursors of reading including phonological awareness in 6-year-old preschool children. The results revealed not only significant correlations between productive and perceptive musical abilities with phonological awareness but also associations with further important precursors such as working memory and rapid retrieval of information from long-term memory.…”

A Biblioteca Na Educação Infantil: Explorando Possibilidades De Leitura

“…Neste tópico, será apresentado um resumo da pesquisa realizada pelo educador musical e mestre Eder Ricardo da Silva junto ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem da Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), campus Bauru cujos resultados foram publicados por Silva, Baldin e Santos (2017).Estudos prévios constataram que atividades musicais podem contribuir em diversas áreas do desenvolvimento humano: cognição, linguagem, socialização e raciocínio lógico-matemático (RAUSCHER;ZUPAN, 2000;BRITO, 2003;SCHELLENBERG, 2005;KOELSCH, 2010;DEGÉ;KUBICEK;SCHWARZER, 2015).Dentre estas atividades, há evidências de que o Treino Musical pode favorecer o funcionamento das competências matemáticas de crianças escolares (RIBEIRO; SANTOS, 2017; ARIAS-RODRIGUEZ, 2015). A partir da hipótese de que o treino musical poderia facilitar a aprendizagem da matemática realizamos o primeiro estudo brasileiro sobre o treino musical na Educação Infantil.…”