EFFECT OF MUSIC TRAINING ON PROMOTING PRELITERACY SKILLS: PRELIMINARY CAUSAL EVIDENCE

THE PRESENT STUDY INVESTIGATED WHETHER MUSIC TRAINING fosters children's preliteracy skills. Sixty children were randomly assigned to participate in a 20-day training program in either music or visual art. Before and after training, children's phonological awareness and their ability to map visual symbols onto words (i.e., visual-auditory learning) were assessed. Equivalent improvement after training was observed for both groups on the phonological awareness measure, but the children with music training improved significantly more than the art-trained children on the visual-auditory learning measure. Music training appears to benefit certain skills necessary for reading.