Abstract
There is some evidence for a role of music training in boosting phonological awareness, word segmentation, working memory, as well as reading abilities in children with typical development. Poor performance in tasks requiring temporal processing, rhythm perception and sensorimotor synchronization seems to be a crucial factor underlying dyslexia in children. Interestingly, children with dyslexia show deficits in temporal processing, both in language and in music. Within this framework, we test the hypothesis that music training, by improving temporal processing and rhythm abilities, improves phonological awareness and reading skills in children with dyslexia. The study is a prospective, multicenter, open randomized controlled trial, consisting of test, rehabilitation and re-test (ID NCT02316873). After rehabilitation, the music group (N = 24) performed better than the control group (N = 22) in tasks assessing rhythmic abilities, phonological awareness and reading skills. This is the first randomized control trial testing the effect of music training in enhancing phonological and reading abilities in children with dyslexia. The findings show that music training can modify reading and phonological abilities even when these skills are severely impaired. Through the enhancement of temporal processing and rhythmic skills, music might become an important tool in both remediation and early intervention programs.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02316873
Highlights
Developmental dyslexia is a learning disability that affects spelling and print decoding abilities despite normal comprehension, intelligence and adequate education, and in the absence of overt sensory or neurological damage [1]
The general hypothesis we address in this work is that music training should boost temporal processing at different time scales and this may have in turn a positive impact on phonological awareness and reading abilities in children with dyslexia
In the text reading test, the proportion of children who were still considered as very poor performers was 50% less in the music group compared to the painting group
Summary
Developmental dyslexia is a learning disability that affects spelling and print decoding abilities despite normal comprehension, intelligence and adequate education, and in the absence of overt sensory or neurological damage [1]. Of the order of tens of milliseconds, Tallal [7] proposed that the phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia could be due to impaired processing of formant transitions characterizing the phonetic distinctive features of some consonants. At an event longer time scale Goswami and collaborators claimed that amplitude modulations in the envelope, ranging between 2 and 50 Hz, may be one of the critical acoustic properties underlying syllable rate and speech rhythm [8,9]. The general hypothesis we address in this work is that music training should boost temporal processing at different time scales and this may have in turn a positive impact on phonological awareness and reading abilities in children with dyslexia
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
