Abstract
ObjectiveTo investigate whether specific domains of musical perception (temporal and melodic domains) predict the word-level reading skills of eight- to ten-year-old children (n = 235) with reading difficulties, normal quotient of intelligence, and no previous exposure to music education classes. MethodA general-specific solution of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), which underlies a musical perception construct and is constituted by three latent factors (the general, temporal, and the melodic domain), was regressed on word-level reading skills (rate of correct isolated words/non-words read per minute). ResultsGeneral and melodic latent domains predicted word-level reading skills.
Highlights
Associations between musical ability and language skills have been studied over the past twenty years
Musical training has been found to facilitate the processing of lexical stress [4], verbal memory [5], verbal intelligence, and executive function [6], as well as the neural encoding of speech [7] latter caused by experience-dependent neural plasticity in the brain stem [8]
The pragmatic randomised clinical trial was designed, as the name indicates, to reflect the heterogeneity of children with reading difficulties. It was not concerned with a specific learning diagnosis and, focused on the effectiveness of music education for word-level reading skills; in other words, it took into account a more heterogeneous population with reading difficulties despite specific learning language disorders
Summary
Associations between musical ability and language skills have been studied over the past twenty years. A pseudo-randomised clinical trial, among children without previous reading difficulties, researchers observed enhanced reading and pitch discrimination abilities in speech in a music training intervention [22]. The pragmatic randomised clinical trial was designed, as the name indicates, to reflect the heterogeneity of children with reading difficulties It was not concerned with a specific learning diagnosis and, focused on the effectiveness (not efficacy) of music education for word-level reading skills; in other words, it took into account a more heterogeneous population with reading difficulties despite specific learning language disorders (for major considerations regarding the nature of pragmatic RCT, see Hotopf’s work [26]). The purpose of the current study is to test whether musical perceptions and their specific latent domains predict word-level reading skills (e.g., decoding of words and non-words) using a pathway analysis with latent factors
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