Ahokas, J Riikka;
Saarikallio, Suvi;
Welch, Graham;
Parviainen, Tiina;
Louhivouri, Jukka;
(2024)
Rhythm and Reading: Connecting the Training of Musical Rhythm to the Development of Literacy Skills.
Early Childhood Education Journal
10.1007/s10643-024-01654-4.
(In press).
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Abstract
This study investigated whether enhanced rhythm training improves literacy development and working memory performance in pupils in the first and second year of school. According to recent literature, we hypothesized that rhythm-focused training could be effective for children with reading difficulties. Pupils aged 6 to 8 years participated in the study, implemented as part of regular school music lessons. Children were divided into an experimental group that received enhanced rhythm training and a control group that received an equivalent amount of music instruction but without enhanced rhythm training. The intervention was delivered once a week for three months (13 lessons in total). The test battery included pre- and post-measures (0 and 3 months, respectively) with literacy and working memory assessment, and follow-ups (8 and 20 months) with literacy assessment. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in literacy skills after training. However, there was a moderate improvement in working memory performance for the experimental, but not the comparison group. In a post hoc analysis, we found an effect in a subgroup of lower starting-level readers, as the increase in literacy development of these students was statistically significant in the experimental, but not in the comparison group.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Rhythm and Reading: Connecting the Training of Musical Rhythm to the Development of Literacy Skills |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10643-024-01654-4 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01654-4 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Musical rhythm; Music and movement; Literacy skills; Reading impairment; Close-to-practice design |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10189554 |
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