Music and Dyslexia: A New Musical Training Method to Improve Reading and Related Disorders

Abstract

Numerous arguments in the recent neuroscientific literature support the use of musical training as a therapeutic tool among the arsenal already available to therapists and educators for treating children with dyslexia. In the present study, we tested the efficacy of a specially-designed Cognitivo-Musical Training (CMT) method based upon three principles: (1) music-language analogies: training dyslexics with music could contribute to improve brain circuits which are common to music and language processes; (2) the temporal and rhythmic features of music, which could exert a positive effect on the multiple dimensions of the “temporal deficit” characteristic of some types of dyslexia; and (3) cross-modal integration, based on converging evidence of impaired connectivity between brain regions in dyslexia and related disorders. Accordingly, we developed a series of musical exercises involving jointly and simultaneously sensory (visual, auditory, somatosensory) and motor systems, with special emphasis on rhythmic perception and production in addition to intensive training of various features of the musical auditory signal. Two separate studies were carried out, one in which dyslexic children received intensive musical exercises concentrated over 18 h during 3 consecutive days, and the other in which the 18 h of musical training were spread over 6 weeks. Both studies showed significant improvements in some untrained, linguistic and non-linguistic variables. The first one yielded significant improvement in categorical perception and auditory perception of temporal components of speech. The second study revealed additional improvements in auditory attention, phonological awareness (syllable fusion), reading abilities, and repetition of pseudo-words. Importantly, most improvements persisted after an untrained period of 6 weeks. These results provide new additional arguments for using music as part of systematic therapeutic and instructional practice for dyslexic children.

Relationships between music training, speech processing, and word learning: a network perspective

“…This result is particularly interesting in that it pinpoints the importance of music for speech perception and more generally for children's language development. These research topics are interesting not only in that they enable us to better understand the common neural underpinnings of speech and music processing as well as transfer effects, but they also open novel possibilities for therapeutic applications in children and adults characterized by a variety of language‐related disorders, such as dyslexia and aphasia . Concerning dyslexia, there is evidence showing that music training facilitates the discrimination of fast changing acoustic cues, which is one of the several domains where dyslexic children have difficulties …”

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

“…In conclusion, there are theoretical arguments as well as empirical evidence suggesting that not only phonological trainings but also musical trainings are suited for promoting phonological awareness at an early stage of child development and hence for helping to preparing children for the successful acquisition of written language (for studies on older children and/or children with dyslexia see e.g., Flaugnacco et al, 2015; Habib et al, 2016). If this were the case, a combination of both trainings should have stronger effects on phonological awareness than a phonological training alone.…”

Music As An Influential Factor In Learning

“…For instance, this is the case in a study by Peterson & Thaut (2007) There is a group of studies that investigate music as a compensatory and facilitative factor in various autism-spectrum disorders (Carnahan, Musti-Rao & Bailey, 2009;Simpson, Keen & Lamb, 2013;Schwartzberg & Silverman, 2016). Music training is reflected positively in the verbal memory of individuals with Williams-Beuren syndrome (Dunning, Martens & Jungers, 2015), but with regard to our focus there are relevant studies focusing on the education of individuals with specific learning disorders (Cogo-Moreira et al, 2012;Welch & Ockelford, 2015;Habib et al, 2016), in which music always seems to be a beneficial tool for improvement. § Music as a Motivational Agent for Learning…”