Vocal pitch matching in early childhood as a relative cognitive strength among low academic performers

Abstract

In this study, using some novel measures, we examined vocal pitch matching in 4- and 5-year-old children in transitional kindergarten classrooms and, at two time points, tested relationships between children’s singing pitch accuracy and their classroom grades as well as performance on standardized measures of developing cognitive and academic skills. Consistent with previous studies, children’s grades were strongly correlated with their performance on standardized measures and differed significantly by gender, maternal education, household income and household language. In contrast, vocal pitch matching and tonal pitch processing showed no consistent relationship to grades, standardized tests or sociodemographic variables, and children with lower academic performance showed statistically equivalent pitch singing on average compared to their peers with higher grades. These findings suggest pitch processing and production abilities may be a relative cognitive strength among children doing less well in school, which may be explored for developing programmes to lift their academic performance.