Literacy, Phonological Awareness and Dyslexia: Using Music to Foster Literacy Skills

Literacy, Phonological Awareness and Dyslexia

Using Music to Foster Literacy Skills

Maria Kay

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.

Requirements for Literacy

Attention

Comprehension

Sequencing and Prediction

Cognition

Rapid Automatised Naming (RAN)

Memory

Language Skills

Listening

Speaking

Phonological Awareness

Syllables

Rhymes

Phonemes

Ability to Map

Sounds to

Symbols

Reading

Writing

Motor Skills

Music

Motivation

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.

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.

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.

Commonalities between Music and Literacy

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

Music Areas of Convergence

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

Music enhances memory retention and recall

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

Memory

Music is motoric Movement

Movement stimulates the brain

Music is engaging for young children Motivation

Additional benefits:

Emergent Literacy Skills

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

Vital to literacy

Movement supports learning (kinaesthetic)

Motivation promotes learning

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.

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’.

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 plasticresponsive 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.

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).

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 identifies various areas of weakness:

Language

Spoken language - pronunciation

Following instructions

Forgetful of words

Unusual sequencing of letters or words

Brain

Work messy

General sequencing

Concentration

Timing

Difficulties with time

Organisation

Movement

Poor motor skills

Participation in musical activities has been shown to assist skills in:

Language

Benefits language experience

Improves listening skills

Promotes attention to sound

Assists memory recall

Using syllabic music helps in syllabification of words

Brain

Music: stimulates the brain

Assists memory retention and recall

Improves focus/attention

Timing

Moving in time with music may improve temporal processing

Movement

Music helps co-ordination – rhythmic entrainment.

Music is motoric – movement stimulates the brain

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!

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-anddevelopment/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.

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.

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’.

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)

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 reenforces 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!

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 Jenkinshttps://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.

SIX: Phonemes

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

Alphabet Rap

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

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.

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.

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. Seehttp://genius.com/The-who-heinz-baked-beans-lyrics.

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

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.

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

Plan – man

Main – chain

Eyes - skies

Durnside – seaside - cried

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.

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