Children’s Ability to Distinguish Musical Rhythm Relates to Grammar Skills Email Address By: NeuroNet inShare childrens ability toChildren’s ability to distinguish musical rhythm is related to their capacity for understanding grammar, a new Vanderbilt study shows. The researchers claim this is the first study to show a specific association between musical rhythm and grammar. Previous research has shown that rhythm is correlated to a child’s language processing ability, as well as their brain’s response to sound. The current study builds upon previous findings by exploring the similarities between speech and music. In grammar, children’s brains sort the sounds they hear into words, phrases and sentences. In music, children listen to rhythmic sequences to distinguish the beat and timing. To test this, the researchers examined twenty five children around the age of six who had less than two years of formal musical training. The children were first given a standardized musical aptitude test. The computer program instructed children to judge if two melodies sounded the same or different. Next, the researchers had the children play a computer game, a beat-based assessment, which was developed specifically for the study. In the game, children watched cartoon characters play two rhythms before determining which character was playing a third rhythm. To determine children’s grammar skills, the participants were shown a variety of photographs and then asked questions about them. The researchers assessed the grammatical accuracy of the children’s answers, such as using the proper tense and correct words. The researchers note that even though the grammatical and musical tests were quite different, the results showed that children who did well on one test tended to do well on the other. Even when the researchers controlled for IQ, musical experience, and socioeconomic status, they still found a positive correlation between the musical and grammatical test. Furthermore, the findings suggest that children who are better at detecting variations in musical training are also better at determining variations in speech, which may offer an advantage in learning language. The researchers also hope that this study, as well as additional research in the field of music cognition, will help solidify music’s role in education. Musical training has a significant and unique impact on brain development. Consider how you can make music a bigger part of your child’s life.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 02:32:33 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015