Abstract
Previous results showed a positive influence of music training on linguistic abilities at both attentive and preattentive levels. Here, we investigate whether six months of active music training is more efficient than painting training to improve the preattentive processing of phonological parameters based on durations that are often impaired in children with developmental dyslexia (DD). Results were also compared to a control group of Typically Developing (TD) children matched on reading age. We used a Test–Training–Retest procedure and analysed the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) and the N1 and N250 components of the Event-Related Potentials to syllables that differed in Voice Onset Time (VOT), vowel duration, and vowel frequency. Results were clear-cut in showing a normalization of the preattentive processing of VOT in children with DD after music training but not after painting training. They also revealed increased N250 amplitude to duration deviant stimuli in children with DD after music but not painting training, and no training effect on the preattentive processing of frequency. These findings are discussed in view of recent theories of dyslexia pointing to deficits in processing the temporal structure of speech. They clearly encourage the use of active music training for the rehabilitation of children with language impairments.
Highlights
Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs the acquisition of reading despite conventional instruction and sociocultural opportunities, normal intelligence, and motivation [1,2,3]
1), but it was larger for children before training and DysMus after music training (Group × Deviance size: F < 1), but it was larger for Typically Developing (TD) children than for DysPaint after painting training (Group × deviance size: F(1,30) = 14.72, p < 0.001; compare Figures 4A and 4B)
Results of this longitudinal CRT in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) showed that music training improved sensitivity to Voice Onset Time (VOT), a phonological parameter that is contrastive in French, and that in the present design allowed to discriminate the deviant (/pa/) from the standard syllables (/ba/)
Summary
Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impairs the acquisition of reading despite conventional instruction and sociocultural opportunities, normal intelligence, and motivation [1,2,3] This disorder affects ~5% of children in primary school [1,4,5,6]. In a previous experiment comparing children with dyslexia and Typically Developing (TD) children [21], we tested for this hypothesis at the preattentive level, that is, when children are not asked to focus their attention on the stimuli of interest. These stimuli are processed implicitly rather than explicitly. Chobert et al [21]
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