Links between early rhythm skills , musical training , and phonological awareness

A small number of studies show that music training is associated with improvements in reading or in its component skills. A central question underlying this present research is whether musical activity can enhance the acquisition of reading skill, potentially before formal reading instruction begins. We explored two dimensions of this question: an investigation of links between kindergartners’ music rhythm skills and their phonological awareness in kindergarten and second grade; and an investigation of whether kindergartners who receive intensive musical training demonstrate more phonological skills than kindergartners who receive less. Results indicated that rhythm skill was related to phonological segmentation skill at the beginning of kindergarten, and that children who received more music training during kindergarten showed improvement in a wider range of phonological awareness skills at the end of kindergarten than children with less training. Further, kindergartners’ rhythm ability was strongly related to their phonological awareness C. Moritz (&) ! S. Yampolsky ! M. Wolf Center for Reading and Language Research, Tufts University, Miller Hall—North Wing, Medford, MA 02155, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Yampolsky e-mail: [email protected] M. Wolf e-mail: [email protected] G. Papadelis Faculty of Department of Music Studies, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece e-mail: [email protected] J. Thomson Faculty of Harvard Graduate School of Education, Larsen Hall, 14 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA e-mail: [email protected] 123 DOI 10.1007/s11145-012-9389-0 Read Writ (2013) 26:739–769 Published online: 06 June 2012 Author's personal copy