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

Abstract

Well-developed phonological awareness skills are a core prerequisite for early literacy development. Although effective phonological awareness training programs exist, children at risk often do not reach similar levels of phonological awareness after the intervention as children with normally developed skills. Based on theoretical considerations and first promising results the present study explores effects of an early musical training in combination with a conventional phonological training in children with weak phonological awareness skills. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design and measurements across a period of 2 years, we tested the effects of two interventions: a consecutive combination of a musical and a phonological training and a phonological training alone. The design made it possible to disentangle effects of the musical training alone as well the effects of its combination with the phonological training. The outcome measures of these groups were compared with the control group with multivariate analyses, controlling for a number of background variables. The sample included N = 424 German-speaking children aged 4–5 years at the beginning of the study. We found a positive relationship between musical abilities and phonological awareness. Yet, whereas the well-established phonological training produced the expected effects, adding a musical training did not contribute significantly to phonological awareness development. Training effects were partly dependent on the initial level of phonological awareness. Possible reasons for the lack of training effects in the musical part of the combination condition as well as practical implications for early literacy education are discussed.

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

“…For future research concerning the promotion of literacy skills and literacy-related skills, a consecutive training regime combining musical training (helping to enhance the processing of temporal and spectral auditory cues in speech and thus supporting the development of phoneme perception and phonological processing) with training in phonological awareness might be an especially fruitful approach. However, a recent training study by Kempert et al (2016) did not find incremental training effects on phonological awareness in an intervention group receiving music training prior to a phonological awareness intervention in comparison to a second intervention group receiving a training of phonological awareness only. This lack of effects might be attributable to low training intensity as well as the fact that a broad range of music facets was trained (Kempert et al, 2016).…”

“…However, a recent training study by Kempert et al (2016) did not find incremental training effects on phonological awareness in an intervention group receiving music training prior to a phonological awareness intervention in comparison to a second intervention group receiving a training of phonological awareness only. This lack of effects might be attributable to low training intensity as well as the fact that a broad range of music facets was trained (Kempert et al, 2016). Concentrating on the training of specific music processing skills such as rhythm processing or other temporal musical skills might be more promising (see, e.g., Overy, 2003; Moritz et al, 2013; Hallam, 2018).…”

Elvis Has Left the Building: Correlational but Not Causal Relationship between Music Skill and Cognitive Ability

“…In fact, music training has failed to offer any specific advantage in terms of both cognitive enhancement and academic achievement. These conclusions are made even stronger if we take into consideration that music training has been found substantially ineffective even at enhancing those skills traditionally believed to be tightly close to music skill, such as phonological processing and literacy (e.g., Kempert et al, 2016).…”

Comparative Analysis of the Influence of Music Training at Home and Abroad on Language Ability

“…However, Kempert et al (2016) studied German children and found that speech training had a significant impact on phonological awareness, while music training had no significant effect on phonological awareness.…”