Rhythmic perception, music and language

This study will test the theory that specific language impairment (SLI) in children is caused by difficulties in processing rhythms. If so, this will help us understand if music interventions can help these children, and which interventions might work best.

Research has shown that children with dyslexia struggle with tapping in time to a beat. A recent study by Professor Goswami found these children also struggled to identify ‘rise time’ (the rate at which a sound begins) – another sign of difficulty with processing rhythms. This new study will now explore if children with SLI also have similar difficulties with rhythm.

At least 72 children aged around 9 years will take part in the study, half with SLI and half without. Using standard and novel tests of auditory processing, language and musical tasks, the team will explore how well the children perceive rhythm and pitch. The children will then repeat these tests – and take some new tests – one year later.

The hypothesis is that children with SLI will perform poorly on the tests of rhythm and linguistic organisation, but normally on the pitch-related tests. It is expected that difficulties with perceiving rhythms will be related to the severity of the child’s speech and language difficulties.

This theory of rhythmic processing is known as the Temporal Sampling Framework. Being able to process rhythm is thought to be highly important for understanding speech. For example, infants use the rhythmic or prosodic features of language as a key way of identifying words and syllables in a stream of speech.