The relationship between musical ability and literacy skills

Abstract

Research has shown that a relationship exists between phonological awareness and literary skills. It has been suggested that a structured programme of musical activities can be used to help children develop a multi-sensory awareness and response to sounds. The relationship between musical ability and literacy skills was examined in a study that showed an association between rhythmic ability and reading. A further pilot intervention study showed that training in musical skills is a valuable additional strategy for assisting children with reading difficulties. RESUME Les relations entre compbtences en musique et en lecture-kcritureDe nombrew chercheurs ont montrt qu'il y a une relation entre conscience phonologique et compttences en lecture-ecriture et que les mauvais lecteurs ont des difficultts a skparer les mots en fonction de leurs composantes sonores Treiman, 1985). Des recherches s'intkressent au fait que de nombreux enfants intelligents ayant souffert d'une perte auditive temporaire au cours de leur petite enfance rencontrent des probltmes en lecture et en Ccriture, et certains pensent qu'un programme structurt d'activitks musicales pourrait compenser ces difficultks initiales (Wisbey, 1980). Miles et Miles (1990) ont attire l'attention sur les recherches relatives a la dyslexie et a la musique. Des rksultats de differents types ont ete reunis dans une brochure de Smith (1988) faisant la liste de certaines difficult& que rencontrent les dyslexiques dans leur rapports avec la musique. Cette liste contient 'se souvenir d'une phrase mklodique ou rythmique et la reproduire en chantant ou en frappant des mains' (Miles et Miles, 1990, p. 49). Ceci suggtre un lien entre une mauvaise perception du rythme et de la hauteur et des problemes de lecture. L'ktude prksentke ici a ktk entreprise pour explorer l'kventualitk d'un lien entre compktences en musique et en lecture-kcriture. Un effectif de 78 enfants, 2gks de 7 a 8 ans, a passk un test de vocabulaire (British Picture Vocabulary Scale), les tests de lecture et ecriture de Schonell, et un test de conscience auditive construit spkcialement pour kvaluer les compktences de rythme et de hauteur. Les rksultats ont fait apparaitre une corrklation significative entre les compktences rythmiques et la lecture (.306), qui est demeurke quand l'influence du vocabulaire a kte partiellement exclue de la corrklation.Springer et Deutsch (1984) ont suggkre que le traitement du rythme est sous le contrdle de l'hkmisphhre gauche du cerveau, tandis que l'hkmisphtre droit contrale le traitement des jugements mklodiques et la hauteur. I1 est possible que le rythme et la lecture soient correlks parce que les mkcanismes qui contrdlent le langage sont localisks kgalement dans l'hkmisph2re gauche (Sloboda, 1985).Wisbey (1980) a mis l'accent sur l'importance de la hauteur dans le dkveloppement des compktences en lecture-Ccriture, ce qui semble en contradiction avec les rksultats de notre ktude. On peut trouver une explication de cette contradiction dans une expkrience de Bever et Chiarello (1...

Bach Speaks: A Cortical “Language-Network” Serves the Processing of Music

“…Thus, the present results provide an explanation why musical elements participate very early in the process of language development in children: it has been hypothesized that music and speech are intimately connected in early life (Trainor and Trehub, 1992;Trehub et al, 2000), that musical elements pave the way to linguistic capacities earlier than phonetic elements (Papoušek, 1996), and that melodic aspects of adult speech to infants represent the infant's earliest associations between sound patterns and meaning (Fernald, 1989), as well as between sound patterns and syntactic structure (Krumhansl and Jusczyk, 1990;Jusczyk et al, 1992;Jusczyk and Krumhansl, 1993). Improvement of abilities in the language domain by training in the musical domain has also been reported for adults (Chan et al, 1998;Douglas and Willatts, 1994).…”

Individual Differences in Rhythm Skills: Links with Neural Consistency and Linguistic Ability

“…Mounting evidence suggests that rhythmic deficits are tied to language impairment: abnormally poor reading and phonological awareness have been linked to difficulties with rhythm skills as diverse as synchronization (Thomson, Fryer, Maltby, & Goswami, 2006; Thomson & Goswami, 2008;Corriveau & Goswami, 2009;Tierney & Kraus, 2013b;Flaugnacco et al, 2014), beat extraction (David, Wade-Wolley, Kirby, & Smithrim, 2007), metrical perception (Huss, Verney, Fosker, Mead, & Goswami, 2011), rhythm memory (Dellatolas, Watier, Le Normand, Lubart, & Chevrie-Muller 2009;González-Trujillo, Defior, & Gutiérrez-Palma, 2012;Flaugnacco et al 2014), and rhythm discrimination (McGivern, Berka, Languis, & Chapman, 1991;Douglas & Willatts, 1994;Strait, Hornickel, & Kraus, 2011). In fact, links between synchronization ability and reading readiness skills have even been observed in pre-schoolers too young to have received reading instruction (Woodruff Carr, White-Schwoch, Tierney, Strait, & Kraus, 2014).…”

Can Music Really "Improve" the Mind?

“…Results demonstrated that these children were able to keep up with their peers in all areas of the school curriculum, while performing slightly better than their peers in language and reading skills (Spychiger et al, 1993). These may not seem dramatic results (and the possibility that increased motivation was a key factor cannot be ruled out), however, when considered in the light of studies demonstrating similar improvements in language and reading skills (Hurwitz et al, 1975, Douglas andWillatts, 1994) the theory is strengthened.…”