Speaking at The Hay Festival in 2019, Professor Usha Goswami, Director of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education at the University of Cambridge, said that children can overcome dyslexia by learning nursery rhymes, dancing and singing.
Having spent the last 10 years studying and testing the brains of youngsters she’s found that the dyslexia is not caused by children reading words incorrectly, but instead their inability to hear the rhythm of words when they are being spoken.
She told the audience at the festival : “Children who are dyslexic struggle with speech rhythm. So we began to think that rhythm and these problems found in children with dyslexia might be related.
“All kinds of rhythmic experiences can be helpful, nursery rhymes, dancing and music as long as the beat is matched to language,” she said. “Playground clapping and games may be very important to stopping dyslexia. You could start to remediate it before children even start school.
“If children keep it up they will learn to read. It will definitely happen. The brain just needs more training. These children need to know that their brain just works a bit differently and reading is going to be harder for them.”
Professor Goswami published a research report for the Cambridge Primary Review Trust in 2015 entitled, ‘Children’s Cognitive Development and Learning’.
SOURCES:
Cambridge Primary Review Trust (Full report): https://cprtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/COMPLETE-REPORT-Goswami-Childrens-Cognitive-Development-and-Learning.pdf
Music Industries Association: https://www.mia.org.uk/2019/05/dyslexia-can-be-overcome-with-nursery-rhymes-and-music-says-cambridge-professor/
Bigger Better Brains: https://biggerbetterbrains.com/news-post/dyslexia-is-a-hearing-issue-not-a-reading-issue/
DETAILS:
| BENEFIT: | LITERACY |
| TARGET GROUP: | PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN |
| AGE: | 5-11 YEARS-OLD |
| MUSIC TYPE: | GENERAL |
| TYPE OF STUDY: | ACADEMIC RESEARCH |
| NOs INVOLVED: | UNKNOWN |
| PERIOD OF STUDY: | 10 YEARS |
| DATE: | 2015 |
| PLACE: | UK |
Music Education Works 