Music-related Auditory Stimulation and Phonological Working Memory

Abstract

At first glance, children with language impairments are difficult to understand, which is why speech therapy tends to focus on pronunciation. Upon closer inspection, however, the impairment is often based on deficiencies in speech comprehension, phonological working memory and phoneme discrimination skills. Despite their importance for successful learning at school, working memory capacity and speech comprehension are still not components of conventional speech therapy. In this experiment, 92 preschool-aged children with deficiencies in speech comprehension and working memory were observed for a period of 15 weeks. Considering that working memory has in the past been considered unresponsive to speech therapy, the evaluation study focused on proving this to be achievable through music-related auditory stimulation. The children were divided into three groups. The experimental group (n=32) took part in auditory stimulation with technically modulated music for a period of 12 weeks. The special-attention group (n=31) was assisted in school activities for a similar period. The third group (n=37) served as a waiting list control group. The children in the experimental group showed significantly improved working memory capacity and better phoneme discrimination skills compared to the control groups. The findings of the study suggest that music-related auditory stimulation can support children with language impairments and improve their chances at school.