Literacy, Phonological Awareness

and
Dyslexia
Using Music to Foster Literacy Skills

Maria Kay
 © Maria Kay 2017

First published 2017

by Bryant and Kay Publishing

Fochabers, Scotland
First Edition
BKP108

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any electronic

or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording or information
storage and retrieval) without the written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the UK by FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

38-40, Grant Street, Inverness, IV3 8BN
fortherightreasons@rocketmail.com

ISBN 978-1-910102-99-2
Contents Page

Introduction 5

Becoming Literate 6

Commonalities between Music and Literacy 9

Phonological Awareness 10

Why Use Music to Develop Phonological Awareness? 12

Phonological Awareness and Music – Overlapping Areas 13

Music and Phonological Awareness – Research 14

Dyslexia 17

Dyslexia and Music Research 19

Helping the Dyslexic Child through Music 20

Teaching Tips 21

Literacy through Music Activities for Young Children

ONE Musical Story 22

TWO Chanting 24
THREE Song with Movement 25
FOUR Syllabification 26
FIVE Rhyme Time 27
SIX Phonemes 28
SEVEN Alliteration 30

Literacy through Music Activities for Older Children

EIGHT A Range of Literacy Skills 33

NINE Using Music Videos 34

References 35
 5

Introduction

The information in this book explains the links between literacy, phonological
awareness and dyslexia, and provides advice on how music may be used to foster vital
literacy skills for children who may be struggling to acquire the foundational skills
necessary for literacy success.

The requirements for literacy are multi-various and children progress at their own
pace. Children develop skills and gain experience at different times. The first section
offers a brief overview of how children become literate. Phonological awareness is
identified as a major determinant of good literacy skills and this is therefore explained
in detail.

Using musical activities as a means of supporting the development of literacy skills

offers an inclusive form of learning. It is one ideally suited to literacy learning due in
part to its close relationship with language, but also the many areas of commonality
with literacy. Engaging in musical activities helps children to tune in to sound. This is
an important skill for literacy and when linked to literacy activities will help children to
become more aware of individual sounds in language.

Children with dyslexia often have a range of difficulties which result in the process of
literacy learning being very laborious. Using musical activities as a conduit for literacy
learning may do much to ameliorate the difficulties. Difficulties with rhythm and
timing in language are particularly implicated as problematic for the dyslexic child.
Research in this area is outlined. Points of overlap between problem areas for dyslexic
children and those which may be promoted through musical activities are identified.

Finally, there are activity ideas for use in supporting struggling learners, using musical
activities to promote a range of literacy skills through the provision of engaging and
enjoyable experiences.
 6

Requirements for Literacy

Sequencing and Prediction

Cognition
Attention Rapid Automatised Naming
(RAN)
Comprehension
Memory

Phonological
Awareness Ability to Map
Language Skills Sounds to
Symbols
Listening Syllables

Speaking Rhymes Reading

Phonemes Writing

Motor Skills Motivation

Music

Phonological awareness is highlighted here as this is an area that is often problematic

for children with dyslexia. A child with literacy difficulties may have problems in a
range of areas; many of which may be addressed through participation in musical
activities.
 7

Becoming Literate

Literacy requires a set of skills and a set of practices. It is about gaining the skills and
knowledge required to be able to read and write but also about how a person uses
printed materials and how they may view themselves as a reader or writer. Children
need to have confidence in their ability to use their literacy skills. Learning to read and
write is a complex process referred to by Ehri, (2005:168) as ‘One of the great
mysteries’. There are many variables which contribute to the process of becoming
literate and researchers continue to examine the mystery of why some children
appear to learn easily and others seem to struggle. Literacy is a multiplicity of skills,
knowledge and experience.

An early years environment needs to be one which fosters literacy habits, positive
educational values and self-image. Children need to see and share in reading activities
and develop a thirst for learning. Confidence is crucial and the enjoyment of literacy
activities. Wanting to learn is a major step towards being able.

Learning is a process constructed from sensory experience and thought. Bringing

together experience, through engagement with the environment, and thought,
through the posing of questions inviting children to think. Children need inspiration,
expectation and motivation. Children learn what they believe is relevant to them.
They will attend to and remember experiences that they enjoyed and had meaning for
them.

Spoken language skills are innate and fundamental to future literacy progress. Children
need to develop good receptive and productive vocabularies. It is important that
children can detect the subtle variations in language sounds; this is termed
‘phonological awareness’ (PA) and refers to the smaller chunks of sound into which
words may be broken and reconstructed – syllables, rhymes and phonemes.

Language and phonological skills are the foundations of literacy development and
difficulties are predictive of later literacy difficulties (Snowling and Hulme, 2012).
Hence, this is an important area of focus when considering early precursors to literacy
skill acquisition. Heath et al. (2014) confirm that ‘phonological awareness, letter
knowledge, oral language … are acknowledged within-child predictors of literacy
development’.

The learning of letter names and sounds is also fundamental; Piasta and Wagner
(2010) found that children were more successful at learning letter sounds when they
also learned letter names. Learning to discriminate letter shapes from numbers,
pictures and each other is a visual skill which is also required.
 8

Children need to acquire bibliographic knowledge – knowledge of how books work –

the direction of text, the purpose of text, how the pages are turned, page numbering
and the sequence of events in a text.

Literacy also requires both mental and physical skills. Cognitive skills are the thinking
skills a child will need to call on. These include ‘comprehension’ – an understanding of
the spoken word, ‘focus and attention’ – the ability to focus on an activity and pay
attention to instructions and actions occurring around them, ‘sequencing and
prediction’ – the ability to order and think of following scenarios or consequences,
‘rapid automatised naming’ – the ability to name items in quick succession and
‘memory’ – the ability to retain and recall information and events. Whilst good
cognitive skills are indicative of good literacy skills, poor cognitive skills also correlate
with poor literacy.

Motor skills also contribute to literacy acquisition. When reading aloud a person must
move their eyes across and down a page of text and may need to move a mouse of a
computer or turn the pages of a book. They must remember what to do; which way to
follow the text. This becomes habit as children are read to and learn to read for
themselves. Writing requires the additional physical movement of a pen on a page or
the selecting of letters on a keyboard. Motor and visual skills need to be co-ordinated.
The act of writing becomes automatic over time involving muscle memory
(consolidation of a specific motor task into memory through repetition) for the
forming of letters.

Movement may also contribute to literacy learning in its ability to stimulate the brain.
Tomporowski, et al. (in McClelland, 2014) suggested that regular exercise alters brain
functions that underlie cognition and behaviour. Moving in time to language patterns
also helps to embed the patterns. The inability to tap to a rhythmic beat correlates
with literacy difficulties. Rhythmic games such as clapping rhymes helps to strengthen
awareness of the rhythms in language.

Bringing together this wide range of skills, knowledge and experience contributes to
literacy success. The close relationship that music shares with language renders it a
perfect medium for this task. Participation in musical activities is enjoyable and
motivational and literacy skills can be promoted in a natural, inclusive and informal
environment. Musical activities designed to specifically promote these early
contributors to literacy learning can do much to provide a solid foundation upon which
formal literacy teaching can begin.
 9

Commonalities between Music and Literacy

Many areas of commonality render music and literacy ideal learning partners.

Music Areas of Convergence Emergent Literacy Skills

Musical activities promote
auditory awareness and
discrimination
Musicians good at SiN
Singing promotes fluency of
speech
Songs can help to build
vocabulary
Prosody in music
Rhythm
Sound patterns
Pitch
Graphic notation
Symbol recognition
Supports visual skills
Music stimulates the brain
Music-based strategies aid
comprehension
Music training improves
attention
Music is an effective way to
learn sequences
Music promotes fluency
Language
Listening
Auditory discrimination
Speech-in-noise (SiN)
Speaking
Music and language are innate
to humans
Prosody
Phonological Awareness
Awareness of and
discrimination of sounds in
large and small grain sizes
Mapping Sounds to Symbols
Symbols convey meaning
Cognition
Comprehension
Attention/focus
Sequencing and prediction
Rapid Automatised Naming
Discrimination of the sounds
in words is pivotal to literacy
Ability to hear in a noisy
environment
Spoken language is predictive
of reading
Good vocabulary required
Prosody in language
Syllabification
Onsets and rimes
Phonemic awareness
Bibliographic knowledge
Recognition of letters and
words
Text needs to be understood
The ability to focus on a task
affects learning
Deficit is predictive of poor
reading
Predictive of reading

Music enhances memory Memory Vital to literacy

retention and recall
Music is motoric Movement Movement supports learning
Movement stimulates the (kinaesthetic)
brain
Music is engaging for young Motivation Motivation promotes learning
children
Additional benefits:
Participation in musical activities causes the brain to release the chemical dopamine which
increases pleasure, motivation, brain function, decision-making, plus assists movement and
reduces anxiety.
Repetition (which embeds learning) through music is enjoyable – as opposed to drill.
Music is a holistic learning medium and provides a means of integrating many disciplines.
 10

Phonological Awareness

The process of learning to read and write is complex and involves the culmination of a
range of skills and experiences. Children need to know about text, how it is read,
where it may be found and that it imparts information. This is why reading with
children, encouraging their participation and fostering their ability to tell a story or
gain meaning from text themselves (‘dialogic reading’*) is so important. A good
vocabulary and facility with spoken language are important too. Children need to be
able to produce speech sounds before they can attempt to commit these sounds to
paper. Children who possess the ability to play easily with the sounds in words tend to
become good at reading and writing. The awareness of the various sound elements of
words - is termed ‘phonological awareness’. Phonological awareness (PA) is an
auditory skill.

Research informs us that phonological awareness is of great importance on the

journey to literacy competence. Words may be segmented at three main levels:
syllable (rhythm), rhyme (syllable ending) and phoneme (the smallest unit of sound in
a word).

The three main levels of word segmentation can be explained as follows:

1 Syllables – the ‘chunks’ of sounds within a word eg croc-o-dile (3 syllables). To

help to identify the number of syllables in a word, place a hand under the chin
whilst speaking the word aloud; the mouth will open each time a syllable is
enunciated.

Any activities which help children to move and speak/sing/chant together whilst
emphasising the syllables in words will help them to embody the correct syllabic
units. Care must be taken to emphasise the sounds used in spelling. In this way
children’s attention will be drawn to the correct spellings. For example, although
the word ‘chocolate’ may be spoken as ‘choc-late’, it is important to know that
there is another vowel in the middle - ‘choc-o-late’. This can be easily
accomplished through song where syllables can be emphasised more strongly
than in everyday speech.

2 Onset and rime - Each syllable can be broken down into its onset and rime. In
the syllable ‘croc’ – ‘cr’ is the onset (the initial sound unit in a syllable) and ‘oc’ is
the rime (the part of the syllable which consists of the vowel and subsequent
consonants). Note the spelling here of ‘rime’. Not all words have onsets, for
example the word ‘at’.
 11

Learning rhymes is important to children as it helps them to recognise, match

and generate sound patterns. When singing and reciting rhymes it is important
to emphasise the sound patterns of words which match and to help children to
generate their own matching words. Using a technique named ‘cloze’ can be
useful for this purpose. Cloze exercises are those where a word is omitted and
the learner chooses a word to complete the sentence.

3 Phonemes – A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound within a syllable. For

example, in the syllable ‘croc’ there are 4 individual phonemes, - 4 sounds ‘c’, ‘r’,
‘o’ and ‘c’. There are 44 phonemes in the English language. Children need to
learn how these sounds are represented through the written symbols of the
alphabet.

Helping children to listen to differences in musical sounds can help their ability to
listen for the differences in spoken sounds. Some children do not automatically
attune to the different levels of language sounds.

Children generally learn the initial letter sounds of words before they put letter sounds
together to make words. Teaching reading by correlating sounds with symbols is
termed ‘phonics’. Putting sounds together to read a word is termed ‘blending’. The
method of teaching reading this way is known as ‘synthetic phonics’ in the UK and
‘blended phonics’ in the USA.

Moving in time with music may improve temporal (related to time) processing.
Moving to music also helps co-ordination through rhythmic entrainment
(synchronisation to a beat). Music is motoric and it stimulates both sides of the brain.
The undertaking of musical activities also assists memory retention and recall and
improves focus and attention. When an activity is undertaken regularly the brain is
stimulated to remember and recall it.

Music offers opportunity for regular practice and pleasurable repetition. Musical
activities can therefore offer a perfect medium for the promotion of the skills required
for phonological awareness for children with and without dyslexia.

*The term ‘dialogic reading’ is one developed by G. J. Whitehurst (Whitehurst and

Lonigan, 1998) from research by himself and others in the 1990s. It refers to the way
in which pre-schoolers are read to. It involves giving children the opportunity to
become active participants in the reading experience through answering questions and
being encouraged to tell a story along with an adult, rather than simply being read to.
 12

Why Use Music to Develop Phonological Awareness?

The undertaking of musical activities may confer a plethora of benefits to children,

each of which may contribute to the ease of literacy learning and in particular in
helping children to pay attention to variations in sound. The many benefits include:

• Stimulation of the brain (Schlaug et al., 2005)

• Musicians have faster neural responses to music and speech sounds (Strait et
al., 2009, 2012, 2014)
• Benefits to speech processing (Patel, 2014)
• Increase in attention (Dewi et al., 2015; Putkinen et al., 2013)
• Assistance with memory recall (Parbery-Clark et al., 2009)
• Music is motoric (Toyka and Freund, 2007)
• Movement in turn stimulates the brain (Eliot, 2000)
• Enhanced detection of ‘speech-in-noise’ (Parbery-Clark et al., 2009)
• Assistance with memory recall (Janata, 2009)
• Music can entrain movement to a beat, thereby helping co-ordination
(Corriveau and Goswami, 2009; Slater et al., 2013)
• Improving movement to time may improve temporal processing (Goswami,
2013)
• Music is engaging, thereby attention-grabbing (Tierney and Kraus, 2013a)
• Listening to and engaging in musical activities helps to reinforce children’s
awareness of speech segmentation (François et al., 2013)
• A possible increase in literacy scores in school (Slater et al., 2013)
• Improving auditory skills (Putkinen et al., 2013)
• Increasing ability to detect sound in noise (Slater et al., 2015)
• Promoting imagination (Welch et al., 2011)
• Helping to engender a sense of achievement (Salimpoor et al., 2013)
• Helping to build children’s confidence (Ofsted, 2012)
• Enjoyment (Salimpoor et al., 2013)
• Production of chemicals (dopamines) in the brain which induce happy feelings
(Salimpoor et al., 2013)
• Creating a positive environment (Fisher, 2001)
• Encouraging social skills (Gerry et al., 2012)
• Inducing a relaxed and therefore suitable learning state (Thoma, 2013)

Tierney and Kraus (2013a) aver that ‘one of the reasons musical training can be such a
powerful educational tool is that music is inherently rewarding, emotion-inducing and
attention grabbing’ (Menon and Levitin, 2005; Patel, 2011 and 2013 in Tierney and
Kraus, 2013a)
 13

Phonological Awareness and Music – Overlapping Areas

Syllables

Music, especially for children, is often syllabic. The rhythm in the music will match the
syllables in the words of the song. Emphasising these and asking children to tap out
syllables in words will help their ability to spell as they will be able to chunk long words
into smaller sound segments.

Where recalling a musical tune helps children to remember words to a song this may
also help them to identify syllables as the sounds in the music match the chunks of
sound in words.

Rhymes

When we remember a tune, this often jogs our memory of the words too. When we
can remember a word at the end of a line in a verse, there is often a rhyming word to
follow in the next lines. This helps children to match words with rhyming sound
patterns.

Words with the same sound may be spelt the same – they have the same pattern at
the end:

found, sound, pound, round

table, stable, fable,
land, stand, brand, hand

This of course, is not always the case but if children learn that words belong to a
‘family’ this makes it easier for them to remember the spelling and to recognise
chunks of sound so that they don’t need to sound out every letter in a word when they
are reading.

Phonemes

As you can see from Kate Rusby’s song, (Activity 9) songwriters make good use of
alliteration – using words with the same first letter sound – Big, Brave Bill. When
children learn songs and rhymes with matching initial sounds, this becomes fun and
children can be encouraged to think up more words with matching initial sounds.
 14

Music and Phonological Awareness – Research

The ability to identify and differentiate the sounds in words is an important skill for
literacy. It has been proposed that it is possible that this skill could be promoted by
practise in attending to the sounds in music. The ability to attend to sounds in music
has been found to be a skill which has shown transfer effect to literacy (Anvari,
Trainor, et al., 2002; Bolduc, 2009; Peynircioglu, et al., 2002; Dege and Schwazer,
2011). Putkinen et al. (2015) found that musical activities have a causal relationship
with the ability to differentiate sounds in music. Therefore, it would seem possible
that the ability to differentiate sounds in music could help children to be able to
identify the various sounds within words.

Verney (2011) found that tempo discrimination was a key factor in the acquisition of
phonological skills. This has also been found to be a contributory factor to PA in
children with literacy difficulties, especially dyslexia (Goswami, 2013 and Overy, 2003).
Bolduc and Montesinos-Gelet (2005) built on Lamb and Gregory’s findings (1993),
indicating that children who obtain superior results in pitch processing also obtain
higher results in PA and pre-reading tests. The average age of the children was five
years and six months.

Musical Aptitude and PA

In a study by Peynircioglu et al. (2002), children (aged four years and nine months to
six years and one month) were divided into groups of high or low aptitude. Results
from the study showed that children with higher musical aptitude performed better
than the ones with low musical aptitude on PA tests. This showed that the ability to
manipulate linguistic sounds was related to the awareness of distinct musical sounds.

The term ‘musical aptitude’ suggests that one may have a predisposition to musical
ability. Kraus and Chandrasekaran (2010) and Strait and Parbery-Clarke (2012) found
that although there may some genetic disposition to musical talent, musical skills can
be trained.

Music Perception and PA

In 2011, Lathroum wrote a doctoral dissertation entitled ‘The Role of Music Perception
in Predicting Phonological Awareness in Five and Six-Year-Old Children’. The study
‘was based upon the hypothesis that music perception and phonological awareness
appear to have parallel auditory perceptual mechanisms’. Musical perception,
phonological awareness and visual-spatial skills were tested on one hundred and
nineteen, five and six-year-old children. It was found that ‘musical perception made a
 15

statistically significant contribution to phonological awareness.’ The results of this

study support the use of musical based interventions to promote phonological
awareness skills for five and six-year-old children. Lathroum explained music
perception as the perception of musical sounds having components such as rhythm,
pitch and melody (Lathroum, 2011:15).

Music, Rhythm and Syllables

The ability to syllabify a word and to tap out the rhythm of a song, both rely on
phonological segmentation. Overy (2003) found correlation between children who
were good at spelling and at tapping out rhythms. The ability to syllabify is important
to spelling. Children who struggle to identify syllables in words may omit parts of a
word when writing the word down.

Besson, Chobert, et al. (2011) also found that musician children who had had an
average of four years of musical training were more sensitive to syllabic duration.
Verney (2011) suggested that as syllable change is often accompanied by a change in
pitch, an awareness of pitch may enhance phonological discrimination. He found that
the correlation of singing with phonological skills was less significant than drumming,
suggesting that rhythm is more important to phonological discrimination than melody.

Slater, Tierney et al. (2013) also found that the ability to tap to a beat is linked to
reading ability and can be strengthened by musical training. They suggested that a
year of musical training would lead to an enhancement in ability to maintain a
constant tempo when tapping out a beat. In 2013, Tierney and Kraus (Tierney and
Kraus, 2013b) investigated the relationship between auditory input and motor output
in tapping a beat. They suggested that listeners must track a rhythm in order to
reproduce a beat at the correct time. They proposed that this tracking may share the
same processing as language processing. Patel (2009) also noted the relationship
between auditory and motor systems in a parrot which kept a beat to music.

Music and Rhyme

Many children’s songs contain lyrics which have rhyming endings. The value of rhymes
to literacy is not in question. Maclean, in 1987. found that nursery rhymes were
strongly related to phonological skills. Using rhymes to teach children about sound
patterns in language is an accepted part of an early years curriculum. Adding music to
rhymes helps to embed learning further, nursery rhymes are often fun and have
accompanying actions which children enjoy, further enhancing their function as a
literacy learning tool.
 16

Bostelman (2008) studied the effects of rhyme and music on the acquisition of early
phonological and phonemic awareness skills. She instructed sixteen students in the
Alphabet Dance portion of the Phonics Dance programme (Dowd, 1999). The results
showed an overall improvement in letter naming and initial sound fluency. She
concluded ‘that a program utilizing rhyme and music would be beneficial to preschool
students in acquiring early phonological and phonemic awareness skills’ (Bostelman,
2008:44).

Music and Phonemic Awareness

Lamb and Gregory (1993) found a relationship between the discrimination of pitch and
phonemic awareness in four and five-year-old children. Loui, Kroog, et al. (2011) also
confirmed a strong correlation. Anvari, et al. (2002) found that melody and chord
discrimination correlated with phonemic awareness and reading, thereby confirming
evidence from McMahon’s (1979) study, but further identified the specific areas of PA
which correlated with the ability to discriminate chords.

In 2005 Gromko concluded from her study, that music instruction which emphasised
the development of aural perception, led to significant gains in the development of
phonemic awareness. She determined that this was the result of the effectiveness of
the near-transfer-hypothesis (learning in one domain transfers easily to another highly
similar area).

Phonemic awareness is identified as one of the best predictors of how well children
learn to read (Ehri, et al., 2001; Hulme, et al., 2002; Nation and Hulme, 1997).
Therefore, if music instruction promotes phonemic awareness, then music instruction
should ultimately help reading skills. However, Foregeard, et al. (2008) and Dege and
Schwarzer (2011) found that music training did not correlate with phonemic
awareness while Rubinson (2010) found that it did.

Participation in musical activities does not automatically impart literacy skills – the
activities must be used for a purpose specified by the teacher to target particular
outcomes. To teach PA skills, it is necessary to teach PA; music is the perfect medium
for this.
 17

Dyslexia

The term ‘dyslexia’ is one applied to a specific learning difficulty with words. It is an
unexpected difficulty with reading and writing, for children who otherwise perform
commensurately with their age and expectations. The definition by Lyon et al. is:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is

characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by
poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a
deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in
relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom
instruction (Lyon, Shaywitz and Shaywitz, 2003:2).

Although once thought to be a visual problem, it is now known that dyslexia is a

language based problem and that those with dyslexia struggle with the processing of
individual sounds within words. It is a persistent condition which will not diminish
over time. It is often hereditary.

Dyslexic children struggle with learning to identify letters and language sounds. There
is usually a problem with reading fluency; this is due to difficulty with the discernment
of individual sounds within words (phonological awareness). Inability to detect the
various sounds in words causes subsequent difficulty with matching sounds to their
respective alphabetic symbols. This difficulty may also be accompanied by difficulties
with executive functioning – language comprehension, organisational and timing skills,
and/or difficulty with short term memory, sequencing, inability to retain several
commands at the same time. Poor motor skills and inability to focus and pay attention
for periods of time may also be manifested. These can result, cumulatively, in poor
motivation as learners may become disengaged. The effort required to read or
produce written work becomes an often daunting and what may seem to a child, as a
herculean process. Not all children with dyslexia suffer all these difficulties but for
children with a combination of these symptoms, the task of learning to read and write
requires a great deal more effort than for non-dyslexic children.

Scientists have found differences in brain function in the left and right hemispheres of
dyslexics and non-dyslexics. Shaywitz et al. (2002) found significant differences in
brain activation patterns, particularly in the left hemisphere, associated with accessing
the sound structure of words, between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. They also
found activation in parts of the frontal section of the brain in older dyslexic readers
that in non-dyslexic readers was not activated, indicating that dyslexic adults had
engaged compensatory neural systems.
 18

Shaywitz (2003) recommended amongst other things: reading stories and poems with
rhyme, drawing attention to sounds of language, practising clapping syllables,
comparing and matching sounds in words, playing with syllable blending – ‘Gran-dad’,
‘rain-bow’ and playing with the addition and subtraction of letter sounds – add the
sound ‘s’ to ‘and’; take the sound ‘f’ from ‘fair’.

Phonologically based early intervention can be effective in remediating early signs of

dyslexia (Shaywitz, 2003; Shaywitz et al., 2004), as the brain is most plastic -
responsive to change - in the early years (0-8 years of age). Early intervention can also
prevent the loss of self-esteem associated with dyslexia.

As phonological awareness (PA) is identified as being of high importance to literacy,

researchers have tried to identify variables which contribute to PA. Goswami, Gerson
et al. (2010) suggested that reduced sensitivity to prosodic and rhythmic cues could
affect PA. The ability to maintain a beat in time is termed ‘rhythmic entrainment’.
Goswami (2011) found that children with speech and language impairments found
difficulty tapping to a beat and that this also was reflected in their ability to detect the
upbeat of syllables in words. It seems that children need longer to process the
beginning part of a syllable (Verney, 2011). This would explain the natural propensity
of adults to speak to young children in infant-directed-language, such as elongating
‘mum’ in ‘mummy’ for example.

White-Schwoch et al. (2015) found that a child’s ability to process sounds amidst a
noisy environment (speech-in-noise – SiN) could identify children who might be at risk
of literacy difficulties. In addition to poor (auditory) detection of SiN, Laarhoven et al.
(2016) found that children with dyslexia, also have difficulty with reading visual speech
signals (lip-reading); suggesting an impairment of multisensory integration. Listeners
also ‘read’ what a person is saying through their body language, facial and mouth
movements. When this is used to assist a listener to work out what a person is saying
in a noisy environment, dyslexic children are therefore at a disadvantage. Research
from Perrachione et al. (2016) found additionally, that the dyslexic child’s brain is less
able to adapt to changes in spoken words, written words, visual objects and faces than
a non-dyslexic child’s.

This evidence suggests that early interventions which include attention to language
sounds (discrimination, rhythm and timing), sequencing, memory, visual stimuli and
practise in ‘reading’ body language such as that of gesture should help to ameliorate
some of the problems associated with dyslexia.
 19

Dyslexia and Music Research

Children need to be able to produce speech sounds before they can attempt to
commit these sounds to paper. Children who possess the ability to play easily with the
sounds in words tend to become good at reading and writing. Musical activities
promote the ability to reproduce language sounds, to remember and recall them and
offer opportunities to play with sound, thus honing vital skills.

Children with dyslexia have been found to have difficulties in perceiving musical
rhythms. By working alongside other children, children may become entrained ie they
will be able to do what those beside them are doing, by doing it together. This effect
is the same as soldiers marching together – the strong beat and ‘togetherness’ helps
everyone to keep in step. ‘Rhythmic entrainment’ refers to the ability to tap to a beat,
to keep in time. Poor rhythmic entrainment is associated with developmental
dyslexia. Helping children to tap to the beat of a song, whilst singing, can therefore be
beneficial in helping children to identify syllables as it trains the brain to the rhythm of
both music and language simultaneously.

Music may also be used to emphasise language prosody, the rhythmic patterns of
language and stresses on syllables. The term ‘musical metre’ refers to its rhythmic
structure and stress. Metrical structure is core to both music and language. Goswami
(2012:60) advised, ‘It is possible that the more overt rhythms of music may be utilised
to enhance children’s processing of the less obvious rhythms of language’.

Overy (2003) suggested that dyslexia-relating timing deficits may underlie the visual
and auditory perception problems, motor co-ordination problems and fluency and
automatisation problems which adversely affect the development of language and
literacy skills. Her study in 2002 reported a positive effect of musical activities on the
rapid temporal processing skills, phonological skills and spelling skills of dyslexic
children. She noted particularly, the correlation between children who could spell well
and were also proficient at tapping musical rhythms.

Bhide, Power and Goswami (2013) found that a musical intervention was as effective
as a software intervention which was based on rhyme and phoneme/grapheme
training for struggling readers.

Goswami (2013) concluded that, ‘remediation with music might be very effective for
improving phonology in dyslexia’. She also stated (in Bhide et al., 2013) that, ‘activities
which explicitly link musical beat structure to the beat structure of language may help
to improve rhythmic entrainment’ (my emphasis).
 20

Helping the Dyslexic Child through Music

Music can bring together many aspects of literacy learning which can help the
dyslexic child

The British Dyslexia Association Participation in musical activities has

identifies various areas of weakness: been shown to assist skills in:

Language Language

Spoken language - pronunciation Benefits language experience

Following instructions Improves listening skills
Forgetful of words Promotes attention to sound
Unusual sequencing of letters or Assists memory recall
words Using syllabic music helps in
syllabification of words
Brain Brain

Work messy Music: stimulates the brain

General sequencing Assists memory retention and recall
Concentration Improves focus/attention

Timing Timing

Difficulties with time Moving in time with music may

Organisation improve temporal processing

Movement Movement

Poor motor skills Music helps co-ordination – rhythmic

entrainment.
Music is motoric – movement
stimulates the brain
 21

Teaching Tips

Musical activities alone are not sufficient to effect literacy learning. Teaching piano
does not teach a child to read. The focus must be upon literacy outcomes. Music is a
highly effective means through which to deliver literacy learning.

Movement and visuals are also important learning aids. As music is motoric and
stimulates the brain, using music with movement is double the stimulation, as
movement also stimulates the brain! Using visuals adds another dimension to help
the learner to retain information. Literacy requires auditory and visual discrimination.

Learning should be:

• Relevant to the needs and preferences of the learners

• Engaging – to maintain interest and assist learning by making the activities

memorable

• Multi-sensory – a greater number of stimuli gives learners more associations,

increasing the chances of information being retained and available for recall in
the memory

Remember that music is fun!

 22

Literacy through Music Activities for Young Children

ONE: Musical Story – Sleeping Beauty

Read through the instructions. Play out the activity. Sing along to the music.
You can find the music to this activity and other musical stories on the ‘Teach Early
Years’ website. http://www.teachearlyyears.com/learning-and-
development/view/sing-me-a-story.

This activity tells the story of Sleeping Beauty (One of Grimm’s Fairy Tales).

Consider how you may use this activity to promote phonological awareness.

SLEEPING BEAUTY (The actions are given in brackets)

Identify a princess, a wicked fairy and a prince. Give props. Everyone else holds hands
in a circle, sings and does actions as appropriate.

There was a princess long ago, long ago, long ago, (Children stand in a circle and clap
to the beat) There was a princess long ago, long, long ago.

The princess lived in a big high tower, a bit high tower, a big high tower (raise arms)
The princess lived in a big high tower, long, long ago.

A wicked fairy cast a spell, cast a spell, cast a spell (enter the fairy to wave her wand,
looking wicked and the princess falls to the floor, asleep – fairy exits to join the circle)
A wicked fairy cast a spell, long, long ago.

The princess slept for a hundred years, a hundred years, a hundred years (clap the
syllables for ‘hundred’) The princess slept for a hundred years, long, long ago.

A great big forest grew around, grew around, grew around (Children ‘grow’ like
twisted brambles and trees until their arms are all intertwined and held aloft)
A great big forest grew around, long, long ago.

A handsome prince came galloping by, galloping by, galloping by (Prince gallops
around the outside of the circle, riding his horse; others clap syllables for ‘galloping’)
A handsome prince came galloping by, long, long ago.
 23

He cut the trees down one by one, one by one, one by one (Prince mimes trying to
break into the circle, unsuccessfully a few times – then he is allowed in)
He cut the trees down one by one, long, long ago.

He woke the princess with a kiss, with a kiss, with a kiss (Prince blows a kiss to the
princess and she awakes and stands up)
He woke the princess with a kiss, long, long ago.

So everyone was happy then, happy then, happy then (All take partners and dance)
So everyone was happy then, long, long ago. (Sing ‘long, long, ago’ slowly as the song
ends)

To help children with sequencing skills, use the picture cards. This gives children a
visual cue to reinforce the sequence and gives them processing time while they
consider the order of the events.

To add interest and help memory retention, make props, retell the story. Using props
helps kinaesthetic learners and revision of the story aids memory, offering familiarity
and building confidence. Discuss reality – can anyone sleep for a hundred years?

Discuss the clapping of syllables for the words ‘princess’, ‘hundred’ and ‘galloping’.
When the children are used to singing and clapping together, try being silent and just
clapping the syllables in the words. This helps children to internalise the sounds in a
word. Discuss the syllables in other words – which may have one, two or three
syllables.

This song is not a rhyming one but has strong rhythm and requires that children pay
attention to the timing of the song. The repetition at the end of each line helps to
emphasis the initial phonemes in the words, take care to enunciate them. Use this
song to learn about initial letter sounds. Ask questions such as ‘which word begins
with the sound ‘L’? Choose phonemes which are frequent. Suggest names for the
Prince and Princess which are alliterative – Princess Patricia, Pauline, Paige - Prince
Paul, Pablo, Patrick.

Music and movement assist memory and will help children to remember activities
associated with the song.
 24

TWO: Chanting

Chanting offers a bridge between music and speaking. The film ‘The King’s Speech’
offers a good example of how chanting may be used to overcome speech impediment.

Many children’s chants have become playground games. There is evidence that
children who perform regular playtime hand-clapping games have better handwriting
skills than those who do not (Sulkin, in American Associates, 2010). Sulkin’s findings
led to the presumption that "children who don't participate in such games may be
more at risk for developmental learning problems like dyslexia and dyscalculia”.

Activity ideas:

A In pairs chant and clap the rhyme:

A sailor went to sea, sea, sea

To see what he could see, see, see
And all that he could see, see, see
Was the bottom of the deep blue sea, sea, sea

B Make new words eg A small boy went to school. Words at the end of a line
need to sound the same; they do not need to be spelt the same.

C Perform the rhyme while clapping and missing out the word ‘sailor’ – try to keep
time.

D Make up different actions.

E In a group of 5 or ten – say one syllable each as you recite the rhyme. Does
clapping at the same time help to re-enforce the rhythm?

F In a group recite the rhyme, one syllable each – see if each person can supply a
different rhyming word for each line.

G Think about how important it is to be able to keep time in this activity.

H If you are feeling adventurous, another useful chant for older children is ‘Miss
Mary Mack’.
 25

THREE: Song with Movement - The Grand Old Duke of York

This popular children’s song is often used in early years settings. Think about how it is
used. It is very difficult for children to play a drum, using two beaters and march and
sing in time to the song. Consider how you might build up to this competence. Try it
for yourself. Can you beat two sticks, march and sing in time? When working with
children start by marching on the spot. Then add a drum, song and movement one at
a time.

Listen to the music from the Resource Pack – wait for the introduction to play.

The music plays for 3 verses

Sing 3 verses. After the first verse, tell the children that the men put on their pink fluffy
slippers and tiptoe quietly up the hill – so sing quietly and tiptoe; on the third verse, tell
them the soldiers put on their heavy marching boots and stomp their way up the hill –
stamp and sing loudly. Play the instruments up in the air for UP and down near floor
for DOWN.

The Grand Old Duke of York he had ten thousand men

He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again
And when they were up they were up and when they were down they were
down
And when they were only half way up, they were neither up nor down

Without marching – tap the beat and vary rhythms. Is marching on the spot easier
than marching along? Allow children time to build these skills by singing only,
marching on the spot only and playing instruments in time only, before attempting to
put these together.

Devise other activities – for example different actions with the claves, crossing the
midline or tapping sticks in pairs. How might these vary with children of differing ages
or even adults (think of the marching bands).

For another rhythm and timing activity sing ‘Pumpkin Pumpkin’ by A J Jenkins – make
up actions. You will be amazed how easily children remember this song; the syllables
match the notes in the music helping children to note where the syllables are. You
could clap the syllables of the names of other artefacts or items related to Halloween.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mph3hygIFU (at time of print)
 26

FOUR: Syllabification

Tapping to a beat to help with the identification of syllables

Poor Johnny
(Substitute ‘Jenny’ for a girl)

This song is sung to the tune of ‘Did You Ever See a Lassie’. Ensure that you sing one
note for ‘Poor’ and not ‘Po-or’ as the purpose is to emphasise the correct syllables.
When a syllable in a song is sung over more than one musical note the music is termed
‘melismatic’. Using ‘syllabic’ music where one note matches one syllable is preferable
when trying to teach children to segment words into syllables.

One child sits in the middle of a circle and pretends to feel increasingly ill as they
consume the suggested food. Emphasise the pronunciation of the syllables when
chanting the name of the food. You can pass round a drum to tap out the syllables or
clap hands.

Poor Johnny lies a weeping, a weeping, a weeping

Poor Johnny lies a weeping, ‘cos he ate –

Child 1 adds the name of some food and at the same time beats out the syllables on
drum (or claps) eg ‘choc-o-late cake’ (4 syllables).

Child 2 (after the first part of the verse is sung) repeats the first item of food and adds
a second, eg ‘choc-o-late cake’, and ‘straw-ber-ry ice-cream’ (5 syllables)
Everyone sings and taps the items already added and the next person adds a new
item.

When everyone has added an item sing the last verse -

Poor Johnny lies a weeping, a weeping, a weeping

He has a poorly tummy and must stay in his bed!

Movement added to the music and language helps to further embed learning as it re-
enforces memory and recall. Change the name to that of a member of the group and
they can act out feeling more ill as they consume more food!
 27

FIVE: Rhyme Time

Here are some Halloween songs but you could use any rhyming songs.

Listen to ‘Five Little Pumpkins’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm1qvX1ygOo

Use the cloze technique by missing out the second instance of an ending word with
the same sound, for children to replace. For example, ‘Five little pumpkins sitting on a
gate; one said ‘my, it’s getting very xxxx’.

Also ‘Too Spooky for Me’ by A J Jenkins -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gZy-vQ0RnQ

Mr Jenkins has attempted to match as many rhyming words as possible in this

Halloween song but has not always been successful. Identify where words rhyme and
where they do not. Think of other words to match the rhyming patterns. Give
children Halloween pictures or ask them to draw pictures and then find words to
rhyme with the ones in the pictures. For example, bat, rat, cat.

There are many nursery rhymes which can be used to help children to recognise
rhyming sounds. For example, Miss Polly Had a Dolly. Ask children what other words
could rhyme with Polly. Brolly, dolly, folly, golly, holly, jolly, collie, lolly, Molly, nolly,
rolly, solly, tolly, trolley, volley, wolly, zolly. Which words are ‘real’ words? Which
ones are names? Think about how children might generate the initial sounds in their
heads. How do you do it? Use the letters in their names as a starting point or indicate
letters around the room.

Consider the following rhyming songs and how you might use them to help children to
identify, match and generate rhyming words.

Humpty Dumpty
Miss Polly Had a Dolly
1 2 3 4 5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive
Hey Diddle Diddle

Raffi Cavoukian (Canadian singer-songwriter, author and children’s entertainer, known

as Raffi), provides a rich source of songs which can be used to promote rhyming skills.
An example is, Down by the Bay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSxGHve60E
(available at time of print). It also has a strong beat to clap along to.
 28

SIX: Phonemes

Alphabet Rap

A a apple
B b bog
C c cow and Christmas
D d dog

E e elephant
F f five
G g garden
H h hive

I I inky
J j jam
K k key and kettle
L l lamb

M m monkey
N n net
O o octopus
P p pet

Q q question (pronounce the ‘q’ as ‘kw’)

R r rhyme

S s sun and sandwich

T t time

U u umbrella (enunciate – um-brel-la)

V v van
W w water
X exam

Y y yellow
Z z zed
Sounds of the alphabet
Sticking in my head
©M Kay 2017
 29

Ensure that you chant letter sounds and not letter names.

Whilst performing this rap, clap out the syllables, clapping hands together twice for
the repeated letter sound and then both hands on knees for each syllable in the
accompanying word or words. It is easier to clap hands first as they then drop to the
knees, rather than clapping knees and then hands together.

It is necessary to explain that words do not start with a ‘cs’ (x) sound. Talk about
words ending in ‘x’ – ‘box’, ‘fox’. The letter ‘X’ takes its name and sounds ‘ex’ at the
beginning of ‘x-ray’.

Children learn by association so use plenty of actions and pictures to support learning.
Ensure that children understand that letters and words represent the sounds of
language and present plenty of opportunities for matching them together.

This Alphabet Rap helps children to learn alphabet letter sounds. Children need also
to learn other phonemes of which there are 44 in total – ‘sh’ and ‘th’ are examples.
 30

SEVEN: Alliteration – use of repeated consonant sounds in words close together in a

sentence or phrase

Reciting alliterative rhymes helps children to become familiar with repeated sounds in
words. This then facilitates their ability to match these sounds. Some children’s
rhymes make use of alliteration:

Five fat peas in a pea pod pressed

One grew, two grew and so did all the rest
They grew and they grew till they could not stop
When all of a sudden, the pod went ‘POP!’

Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold

Pease pudding in the pot, nine days old

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, catch a baby by the toe

If he screams let him go, eeny, meeny, miney, mo

Mouse, mouse in your house, would you like some lunch?

Here’s a piece of perfect cheese, mmmm… munch, munch, munch

Encouraging children to repeat initial sounds as an enjoyable activity helps their

speech development and awareness of matching sounds.

Make up your own alliterative rhymes. Here is a suggestion:

Five fat flies flew to the fair…….

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters are also alliterative rhymes. Use them to promote speech and
familiarity with the matching of initial letter sounds. Some are very short and easy to
remember, for example:

Sister Suzie sews socks for soldiers

Round the ragged rocks, the ragged rascal ran

She sells seashells on the sea shore.

 31

Some rhymes are also tongue twisters, for example:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,
Where’s the peck of pickled pepper, Peter Piper picked?

A certain young fellow named Beebee

Wished to marry a lady named Phoebe
“But,” he said, “I must see
What the minister’s fee be
Before Phoebe be Phoebe Beebee.”

A tutor who tooted the flute

Tried to tutor two tooters to toot
Said the two to the tutor
“Is it tougher to toot
Or to tutor two tooters to toot?”

Some sounds are more difficult than others to remember.

Alliteration is used effectively in stories too. For example, in the Billy Goats Gruff story
– ‘the goats trip trapped over the rickety, rackety bridge’ or ‘Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum’, in Jack
and the Beanstalk. Point these out to children as you come across them.

Another activity suggestion is to think up an alliterative name for yourself – I’m Mad
Maria!

Raffi’s audience has great fun as he plays with the vowel sounds in Apples and
Bananas - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oacQL7UQtlk

Scottish Government, Deacon, S. (2011) reported studies which found that musical
mnemonics helped memory recall. The use of musical jingles in TV advertising (Beanz
Meanz Heinz, for example, from 1967!) ensures memory retention. See -
http://genius.com/The-who-heinz-baked-beans-lyrics.
 32

Literacy through Music Activities for Older Children

EIGHT: A Range of Literacy Skills – Day Trip to Bangor

This song can be used to try out various rhythms in time with the music, to find
rhyming words and for memory and comprehension. The activity will also hone
listening skills.

DAY TRIP TO BANGOR

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

A beautiful day, we had lunch on the way and all for under a pound you know
But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider
Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went round

Do you recall the thrill of it all as we walked along the sea grand
Then on the sand we heard a brass band that played the Diddlely-Bum-Terrara
Elsie and me had one cup of tea then we took a paddler boat out
Splashing away as we sat on the bay and the wheels went round

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

A beautiful day, we had lunch on the way and all for under a pound you know
But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider
Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went round

Wasn't it nice, eating chocolate ice as we strolled around the fun-fair

Then we ate eels on big ferris wheels as we sailed around the ground but then
We had to be quick 'cause Elsie felt sick and we had to find somewhere to take her
I said to her “lad, what made her feel bad was the wheel going round”

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

A beautiful day, we had lunch on the way and all for under a pound you know
But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider
Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went round

Elsie and me, we finished our tea and said goodbye to the seaside
Got on the bus, Flo said to us, oh isn't it a shame to go
Wouldn't it be grand to have cash on demand and to live like this for always
Oh it makes me feel ill, when I think of the mill and the wheels going round

Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Bangor

A beautiful day, we had lunch on the way and all for under a pound you know
But on the way back I cuddled with Jack and we opened a bottle of cider
Singing a few of our favourite songs as the wheels went round
 33

Here is a worksheet to accompany the song. Consider how you might use the song to
promote phonological awareness for your own learners.

Questions to identify rhymes

All answers must rhyme with the words emboldened.

1 What did the day trippers hear on the sand?

2 Elsie and me had a cup of ________?
3 Who was cuddled on the way back?
4 What was nice to eat?
5 Why did they have to be quick?

Use an exercise like this to match spelling patterns and think of alternative spellings
for words with the same sound endings.

How many different rhythms can you make to accompany the song?

Can you perform the different rhythms together?

Discuss how words may be changed through pronunciation to fit the music –
‘wouldn’t’ into one syllable (wunt), also, ‘cause’ – shortened to one syllable from
‘because’, whilst ‘paddler’ is lengthened to three (padd/l/er).

Comprehension Questions:

1 How many people were on the trip?

2 What were their names?
3 What mode of transport did they use to get to Bangor?
4 Where is Bangor?
5 Name three activities the day trippers undertook in Bangor.
6 Why did Elsie not feel well?
7 How did the group entertain themselves on the way home?

The song could also be used to initiate writing about a holiday or trip or to investigate
locations of well-known place names.
 34

NINE: Using Music Videos – Big Brave Bill

Videos can be both entertaining and educational. This suggestion is a great source of
literacy learning material:

Big Brave Bill – The Hero Who Drinks Yorkshire Tea All the Time – by Kate Rusby

The video of this song can be found at: http://www.bigbravebill.com/

This video contains good examples of a strong beat, repeated rhythm, rhyme and
alliteration and is entertaining for children and adults alike.

People with dyslexia may struggle with keeping a beat in time with music.
Encouraging this skill in an enjoyable way may help. When a person keeps time along
with others, the movement of other people helps them to keep to the same tempo.

The rhythms in ‘Big Brave Bill’ are repeated. Repetition helps information to embed in
the brain. Repeating rhythms in music helps to embed the rhythms in words
(syllables) when lyrics are sung along to music. Listen especially at the end, for the use
of repetition for effect ‘thinks Yorkshire, loves Yorkshire, drinks Yorkshire Tea’ along
with accompanying visuals.

Listen for the rhyming words in the song:

Clark – park – lark Day - way

Flood – mud Eyes - skies
Plan – man Durnside – seaside - cried
Main – chain Proud - crowd

The song makes use of alliteration – Big, brave Bill from Barnsley; tea all the time; Mrs
Dobbins from down the Durnside; warm water.

Additionally, the activity is attention grabbing due to its visuals and when Kate sings
the song on stage she accompanies the lyrics with Superman actions at the mention of
Big Brave Bill! Encouraging children to do this necessitates careful listening skills.
Make ‘Big Brave Bill’ masks to further embed memory.

Children’s songs and rhymes also make use of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration but in
order to take advantage of this natural resource these features need to be emphasised
for children and their attention drawn to them. Ideally add movement and visuals to
further consolidate learning.
 35

References

American Associates (2010) Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. "Hand-clapping songs

improve motor and cognitive skills, research shows." ScienceDaily.

Anvari, S. H., Trainor, L. J., Woodside, J. and Levy, B. A. (2002). Relations among
musical skills, phonological processing and early reading ability in preschool children.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 83 111-130

Besson, M., Chobert, J. and Marie, C. (2011). Transfer of training between music and
speech- common processing, attention, and memory. Frontiers in Psychology, 2 94

Bhide, A., Power, A. and Goswami, U. (2013). A Rhythmic Musical Intervention for
Poor Readers- A Comparison of Efficacy With a Letter-Based Intervention. Musical
Intervention for Poor Readers, 7 (2) 113-123

Bolduc, J. (2009). Effects of a music programme on kindergarteners' phonological

awareness skills 1. International Journal of Music Education, 27 (37)

Bolduc, J. and Montésinos-Gelet, I. (2005). Pitch processing and phonological

awareness. Psychomusicology, 19 (1) 3-14

Bostelman, T. J. (2008). The Effects of Rhyme and Music on the Acquisition of early
Phonological and Phonemic awareness skills. Thesis, (MAed), Defiance College, Ohio.

Corriveau, K. H. and Goswami, U. (2009). Rhythmic motor entrainment in children

with speech and language impairments: Tapping to the beat. Cortex 45 119-130

Dege, F. and Schwarzer, G. (2011). The Effect of a Music Program on Phonological

Awareness in Preschoolers. Frontiers in Psychology, 2 124

Dewi, E. K., Rusmawati, D. and Ratnaningsih, I. Z. (2015). The Effect of Music and
Motoric Movement Intervention to Increase Attention among Elementary School
Students in Semarang Central Java. Procedia Environmental Sciences 179-185

Dowd, G. (1999). The Phonics Dance - Six Steps to Literacy in the Primary Grades
Raleigh, NC:Ginny Dowd

Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D. M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh and
Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read:
 36

Evidence from the National Reading Panel’s meta-analysis. Reading Research

Quarterly, 36 (3) 250-287

Ehri, L. C. (2005) Learning to Read Words: Theory, Findings and Issues. Scientific
Studies of Reading, 9 (2) 167-188

Eliot, L. (2000). What’s Going On In There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the
First Five Years of Life. USA and Canada: Bantam Books

Fisher, D. (2001). Early Language Learning With and Without Music. Reading Horizons,
42 (1)

Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Norton, A. and Schlaug, G. (2008). Practising a musical
instrument in childhood is associated with enhanced verbal ability and non-verbal
reasoning. PLoS One, 3 (10), e3566

François, C., Chobert, J., Besson, M. and Schön, D. (2013). Music Training for the
Development of Speech Segmentation. Cereb Cortex.; 23 (9) 2038–43

Gerry, D., Unrau, A. and Trainor, L. J. (2012). Active music classes in infancy enhance
musical, communicative and social development. Developmental Science, 15 (3) 398-
407

Goswami, U., Gerson, D., and Astruc, L. (2010). Amplitude envelope perception,
phonology and prosodic sensitivity in children with developmental dyslexia. Reading &
Writing, 23 995-1019

Goswami, U. (2011) A temporal sampling framework for developmental dyslexia.

Trends in Cognitive Science, 15 (1) 3-10

Goswami, U. (2012) Entraining the Brain: Applications to Language Research and Links
to Musical Entrainment. Empirical Musicology Review, 7 (1-2) 57-63

Goswami, U. (2013). Dyslexia – in tune but out of time, The psychologist, 26 106-10

Gromko, J. E. (2005). The Effect of Music Instruction on Phonemic Awareness in

Beginning Readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53 199-209

Hulme, C., Hatcher, P. J., Nation, K., Brown, A., Adams, J. and Stuart, G. (2002).
Phoneme Awareness is a Better predictor of Early Reading Skill than Onset-Rime
Awareness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 82 2-28
 37

Janata, P. (2009) The Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical

Memories, Cerebral Cortex, 19 (11) 2579-2594

Kraus, N. and Chandrasekaren, B. (2010). Music training for the development of

auditory skills. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11 599-605

Laarhoven van T., Keetels, M., Schakel, L. and Vroomen, J. (2016) Audio-visual speech
in noise perception in dyslexia. Developmental Science

Lamb, S. J., Gregory, A. H. (1993). 'The Relationship between Music and Reading in
Beginning Readers'. Educational Psychology, 13 (1) 19-27

Lathroum. L. M. (2011). The Role of Music Perception in Predicting Phonological

Awareness in Five-and Six-Year-Old Children. Dissertation (Open Access Dissertations).
University of Miami

Loui, P., Kroog, K., Zuk, J., Winner, E. and Schlaug, G. (2011). Relating pitch awareness
to phonemic awareness in children: implications for tone-deafness and
dyslexia. Frontiers in Psychology, 2 111

Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E. and Shaywitz B. A. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. Annals

of Dyslexia, 53 1-4

Maclean, M., Bryant, P. and Bradley, L. (1987). Rhymes, nursery rhymes, and reading
in early childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 33 (3) 255–281

McMahon, O. (1979). The relationship of music discrimination training to reading and

associated auditory skills. Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, 59
68-72

Nation, K. and Hulme, C. (1997). Phonemic segmentation, not onset-rime

segmentation predicts early reading and spelling skills. Reading Research Quarterly, 32
154-167

Ofsted (2012). Music in schools: wider still, and wider – Quality and inequality in music
education 2008-11. London: Crown Copyright

Overy, K. (2003). From Timing Defects to Musical Intervention. Annals of New York
Academy of Sciences, 999 497-505
 38

Parbery-Clark, A., Skoe, E., Lam, C., and Kraus, N. (2009). Musician Enhancement for
Speech-In-Noise. Ear & Hearing: 30 (6) 653-661

Patel, A. D., Iversen, J. R., Bregman, M. R. and Schulz, I. (2009) Studying

Synchronisation to a Musical Beat in Nonhuman Animals. The Neurosciences and
Music III – Disorders and Plasticity - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1169
459-469

Patel, A. D. (2011). Why would musical training benefit the neural encoding of speech?
The OPERA hypothesis. Frontiers in Psychology. Hypothesis and Theory Article 2 (142)

Patel, A. D. (2014). Can nonlinguistic musical training change the way the brain
processes speech? The expanded OPERA hypothesis. Hearing Research. 308 98-108

Perrachione, T. K., Del Tufo, S. N., Winter, R., Murtagh, J., Cyr, A., Chang, P.,
Halverston, K., Ghosh, S. S., Christodoulou, J. A. and Gabriel, J. D. E. (2016)
Dysfunction of Rapid Neural Adaptation in Dyslexia. Neuron, 9 (6) 1383-1397

Peynircioglu, Z., Durgunoglu, A. Y. and Uney-Kusefoglu, B. (2002). Phonological

awareness and musical aptitude. Journal of Research in Reading, 25 (1) 68-80

Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M. and Huotilainen, M. (2013). Informal musical activities

are linked to auditory discrimination and attention in 2-3-year-old children – an event-
related potential study. European Journal of Neuroscience, 37, 654-661

Putkinen, V., Tervaniemi, M., Saarikivi, K. and Huotilainen, M. (2015). Promises of

formal and informal musical activities in advancing neurocognitive development
throughout childhood. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1337, 153-162

Rubinson, L. (2010). A Correlational Study of the Relationships between Musical

Aptitude and Phonemic Awareness of Kindergarten Children. Thesis (Doctoral
Dissertation). Capella University

Salimpoor V. N., van den Bosch I., Kovacevic N., McIntosh A. R., Dagher A., Zatorre R.
J. (2013). Interactions between the nucleus accumbens and auditory cortices predict
music reward value. Science 340, 216–219

Schlaug, G., Norton, A., Overy, K. and Winner, E. (2005). Effects of music training on
brain and cognitive development. Annals of New York Academy of Science, 1060, 219–
230
 39

Scottish Government, Deacon, S. (2011). Joining the Dots: A better start for Scotland’s
children. Edinburgh: Crown Copyright

Shaywitz, S. E. (2003) Overcoming Dyslexia. Random House Inc. NY

Shaywitz, B. A., Shaywitz, S. E., Blachman, B., Pugh, K. R., Fulbright, R., Skudlarski, P.,
et al (2004) Development of left occipito-temporal systems for skilled reading in
children after a phonologically-based intervention in children. Biological Psychiatry, 55
(9) 926-33

Shaywitz, B. A., Shaywitz, S. E., Pugh, K. R., Mencl, W. E., Fulbright, R. K., Skudlarski,
P., Constable, R. T., Marchione, K. E., Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R. and Gore, J. C.
(2002) Disruption of posterior brain systems for reading in children with
developmental dyslexia. Biological Psychiatry, 52 101-110

Slater, J., Tierney, A.T. and Kraus, N. (2013). At-Risk Elementary School Children with
One Year of Classroom Music Instruction Are Better at Keeping a Beat. PLoS ONE, 8
(10)

Slater, J., Strait, D. L., Skoe, E., O’Connell, S., Thompson, E. and Kraus, N. (2015).
Music training improves speech-in-noise perception- Longitudinal evidence from a
community-based music program. Behavioural Brain Research, 291 244-252

Strait, D. L., Kraus, N., Sloe, E. and Ashley, R. (2009). Musical experience influences
subcortical processing of emotionally-salient vocal sounds. Eur. J. Neurosci. 29: 661–
668

Strait, D. L., Parbery-Clark, A., Hittner, E. and Kraus, N. (2012). Musical training during
early childhood enhances the neural encoding of speech in noise. Brain and Language,
123 191-201

Strait D. L, O'Connell, S., Parbery-Clark, A. and Kraus, N. (2014). Musicians’ enhanced

neural differentiation of speech sounds arises early in life: developmental evidence
from ages three to thirty. Cereb Cortex, 24 (9) 2512-21

Tierney, A.T. and Kraus, N. (2013a). Music Training for the Development of Reading
Skills. In: M. Merzenich, M. Nahum and T. Van Vleet, eds, Progress in Brain Research,
209-241. Burlington: Academic Press

Tierney, A. T. and Kraus, N. (2013b). The ability to tap to a beat relates to cognitive,
linguistic and perceptual skills. Brain and Language, 124 225-231
 40

Thoma, M. V., La Marca, R., Brönnimann, R., Finkel, L., Ehlert, U. and Nater, U. M.
(2013). The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response. PLos One. 8 (8)

Toyka, K. V., and Freund, H. J. (2007) Music, motor control and the brain. Brain, 129
(10)

Verney, J. P. (2011) Rhythmic Perception and Entrainment in 5-year-Old Children – An

Exploration of the Relationship between Temporal Accuracy at Four Isochronous Rates
and Its Impact on Phonological Awareness and Reading Development. Thesis, (PhD),
The Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Welch, G., Saunders, J., Hobsbaum, A. and Himonides, E. (2011). A Research

Evaluation of the New London Orchestra ‘Literacy Through Music’ Programme.
London: International Music Education Research Centre, iMerc, 73

Whitehurst, G. J. and Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child Development and Emergent Literacy.

Child Development, 69 (3) 848-872

White-Schwoch, T., Woodruff Carr, K., Thompson, E. C., Anderson, S., Nicol, T.,
Bradlow, A. R., et al. (2015) Auditory Processing in Noise: A Preschool Biomarker for
Literacy. PLoS Biol 13 (7)
 Growing Little Readers
www.bryantandkaypublishing.co.uk