Training rhythm to improve reading and writing skills

Do rhythmic skills shape the way we learn to read and write? This is the question that Marta Martins, a researcher at the Center for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-Iscte), aims to answer. In two complementary projects, she studies both children's rhythmic predisposition and the causal effect of rhythmic music training on the acquisition of reading and writing skills. This research will also map the neural basis of this relationship using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

“The processing of several musical rhythmic aspects has been consistently associated with children’s reading and writing skills, especially in the early stages of learning. However, it remains unclear how this relationship develops and what mechanisms underpin it,” explains Marta Martins.

The researcher points out that existing studies leave several questions unanswered, including whether musical training that focuses predominantly on rhythmic aspects can promote this learning and whether this effect is independent of the stage of learning at which the children are. To answer these questions, the CIS-Iscte researcher is now coordinating two research projects dedicated to exploring these effects.

Two projects, one goal

The project “RhythMus_inRaw – Evaluating Musical Rhythm Predisposition and Training in Shaping Children's Reading and Writing Skills,” funded by the BIAL Foundation (Ref. 139/2024) and carried out in collaboration with the schools from Agrupamento de Escolas Irmãos Passos (Matosinhos), continues Marta Martins' work on the neurocognitive factors associated with reading difficulties, further exploring the role that rhythmic musical training can play in mitigating them.

In this project, the researcher is conducting a cluster randomized control trial, in which entire classes are randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: exclusively rhythmic music training, Orff music training (comprehensive music training that serves as an active control), or a group without organized and systematic training (passive control). The study will involve 6-year-old Portuguese-speaking children who attend public schools in the district and who will be monitored over two school years. “The children will be assessed before, during, and after training in rhythmic tasks, reading, writing, and fine motor skills, as well as in measures of general cognition, musicality, and sociodemographic variables,” explains Marta Martins. The study will take place in a regular school setting, ensuring high ecological validity. Magnetic resonance imaging data will also be collected, focusing on brain function, allowing the mapping of the neural networks that underpin these processes and the relationship between rhythm and literacy.

The researcher anticipates that “rhythmic training will improve different rhythmic processes, including perception and synchronization,” skills that her previous work relates to reading through phonological processes, as well as motor improvements resulting from musical training. Thus, rhythmic training is expected to simultaneously reinforce phonological and motor processes, which will contribute to the development of reading and writing. In contrast, “the Orff musical training that we will implement should improve fine motor skills and some rhythmic processes (albeit on a smaller scale), replicating the results of our previous studies and, consequently, mainly impacting writing fluency,” she explains. The neural correlates should reflect the behavioral changes observed, particularly in auditory and motor regions.

To expand this line of research, Marta Martins will soon begin the project “Rhythm4RAW – Can Training in Musical Rhythm Improve Children’s Reading and Writing Skills?”, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (Ref. 2023.16303.ICDT). The project comprises three studies: the adaptation and validation of a scale to comprehensively assess children’s musicality, creating the first Portuguese tool for this purpose; a cross-sectional study with children aged 6 to 12, comparing the reading and writing skills of children with and without rhythmic training, including children with high rhythmic predisposition in the group without rhythmic training; and a randomized controlled trial by group, similar to that implemented in the RhythMus_inRaw project, which will replicate the previous study but with a focus on the brain structure correlates that support the relationship between rhythmic processing and reading and writing. Together, these studies will distinguish the effects of predisposition from the causal effects of training and clarify the conditions under which rhythmic processing can support literacy development.

According to the researcher, the key differences between the two projects lie in the type of neural correlate analyzed and the experimental design adopted to study the same research question. The RhythMus_InRaw project focuses on rhythmic predisposition and the effects of rhythmic training over two school years in 6-year-old children, and on the brain function underlying rhythmic processing and literacy skills. The Rhythm4RAW project has a broader scope, includes cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, integrates the validation of a musicality scale, and focuses on the structural correlates associated with the effects under study. In addition, it examines the relationship between rhythm and literacy in a wider age range, involving children aged 6 to 12 years.

Why train rhythmic skills?

Backing up these projects, Marta Martins' previous work, done with researchers from the University of Porto, showed that rhythm perception—not melody perception—is linked to reading skills in first-grade kids.

“Our results also suggest that this relationship is mediated by phonological processing,” explains Marta Martins, emphasizing that “rhythmic processes seem to help children discriminate and organize speech sound units, supporting the development of reading,” she adds.

The CIS-Iscte researcher is currently working on data from a new study involving more than 300 children in grades 1 to 4, and the results again support the relationship between rhythmic perception and reading and the mediation of this relationship by phonological processes. The researcher adds, however, that “this relationship fades in children at more advanced stages of reading development.” These preliminary results have led to a reorientation of the target age group in the two longitudinal studies now getting underway, which will include 6-year-old children, following them throughout the 1st and 2nd grades of elementary school, precisely the most sensitive and initial stage of reading and writing acquisition.

In general, current knowledge suggests that rhythmic training can be useful in supporting reading and writing acquisition, particularly in the early stages. However, this premise needs to be tested through longitudinal studies that consider individual differences between children and their contexts.

Are rhythmic predisposition and family background important for learning to read and write?

In another study published in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Porto and Jena, Marta Martins explored longitudinally how rhythmic predisposition modulates the effects of musical training on motor skills and which brain regions are involved in this process. For about six months, eight-year-old children participated in music training, sports training, or joined a control group without systematic and organized training. They were assessed before and after training in rhythmic and motor skills and through structural neuroimaging. “We observed that, before musical training, children with better rhythmic perception had less gray matter volume in several motor regions,” says Marta Martins. The researcher adds that “musical training improved the children's motor performance, and this effect was more pronounced in those with better rhythmic discrimination at the beginning of the study.” The results also indicated that musical training induced a reduction in gray matter volume in the cerebellum and fusiform gyrus of the left hemisphere—regions associated with rhythmic perception before training—and that this reduction correlated with superior improvements in motor skills. None of these effects were observed in the sports training or control groups. “This study showed that Orff music training promotes motor development and does so more markedly in children with better rhythmic perception. We still need to clarify whether these motor improvements can be transferred to writing fluency—one of the questions we want to answer in new projects," summarizes the researcher.

In a previous study, distinguished by the Portuguese Association of Experimental Psychology with the APPE 2023 Award, the same team investigated whether differences in IQ and socioeconomic status were reflected in structural differences in the brains of children with reading fluency difficulties. The results indicated that children with fluency deficits had lower gray matter volume in the right superior temporal gyrus and other occipito-temporal and fusiform regions when compared to typical readers. Furthermore, among children with reading difficulties, differences in the volume of certain areas depended on socioeconomic status, but not on IQ. As the researcher points out, “among children with reading difficulties, those from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds had greater gray matter volume in the right angular gyrus than children from less advantaged backgrounds.” The angular gyrus is a region of the parietal lobe involved in the integration of multimodal information and is implicated in the semantic understanding of language, symbolic processing (including numerical), and cognitive functions such as memory and attention. For the research team, differences in this region may reflect different levels of cognitive or language stimulation, or variations in attention levels, often associated with less socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds.

What is expected to be discovered and why it matters

Despite the progress already made, there is still a lack of longitudinal and multi-method studies in the literature that allow for rigorous monitoring of the process of reading and writing acquisition, contributing to reducing deficits in these areas. Even fewer studies investigate how rhythmic processing and rhythmic musical training can influence these learning processes. It is precisely this gap that the projects now being launched, with partners at the Universities of Porto, Jena, and Boston, at Unilabs-Boavista, at the São João and Matosinhos Local Health Units, and at the Irmãos Passos School Group, seek to fill. By combining behavioral measures, rigorously controlled musical training, and functional and structural neuroimaging, these projects are positioned to answer fundamental questions: How do behavior and the brain shape themselves with rhythmic training? Who benefits most from this training and why? How do predisposition and experience interact in shaping literacy? The results emerging from these studies will not only deepen scientific knowledge on this topic but may also pave the way for new educational practices that are more sensitive to individual differences and informed by robust evidence. Taken together, this work anticipates a decisive contribution to understanding how rhythm, a universal element of human experience, can become a powerful ally in promoting children's literacy.

Text written by Pedro Simão Mendes (Science Communication Manager)