Toward a More Conclusive Understanding of the Relationship between Musical Training and Reading

A burgeoning question in understanding literacy development is whether engaging in musical training directly transfers benefits to reading-related skills. Although, there is considerable data examining transfer effects of musical training on literacy skills, results from these studies have been largely inconclusive (Anvari et al. To further delineate the potential effects that musical training has on developing reading skills Gordon et al. (2015) reviewed controlled training studies and evaluated whether the research demonstrated positive evidence for a direct transfer hypothesis. Using a meta-analytic approach to evaluate the efficacy of musical training for language outcomes and identify the attributes of music training paradigms that are relevant to specific reading outcomes, the authors focused on literature that addressed training, pre-post-assessment designs, and constancy of reading instruction. This work is an important touchstone for future work for two reasons. First, it highlights with greater specificity what skills may be transferred between musical training and reading. Second, it promotes further investigation of the impact of musical training on literacy skills by outlining potential moderators and study design factors central for future longitudinal work. Initial results from Gordon et al.'s (2015) meta-analysis show that broad category Phonological Awareness outcomes were slightly greater for children who received musical training vs. control groups. Their results reaffirm existing findings demonstrating that musical training and aptitude may enhance language skills. Notably, musicians show improved phonological awareness skills compared to their non-musician counterparts (Forgeard et al., and the positive effects of intensive musical training on phonological representations in dyslexics and normal reading children (Chobert et al., 2014; Habib et al., 2016). However, Gordon and colleagues distinguish their work from previous studies by creating subcategories for Rhyming and Other Phonological outcomes that allowed them to more clearly identify the reading-related skills that may benefit from musical training. Gordon et al.'s approach revealed that 40 h or more of musical training specifically improved rhyming skills. Although, they are cautious to not overstate