Enikő Ladányi, Valentina Persici, Anna Fiveash, Barbara Tillmann, Reyna L Gordon
- Citations: 146
Although a growing literature points to substantial variation in speech/language abilities related to individual differences in musical abilities, mainstream models of communication sciences and disorders have not yet incorporated these individual differences into childhood speech/language development.
This article reviews three sources of evidence in a comprehensive body of research aligning with three main themes:
(a) associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, (b) musical rhythm in children with developmental speech/language disorders and common comorbid attentional and motor disorders, and (c) individual differences in mechanisms underlying rhythm processing in infants and their relationship with later speech/language development.
In light of converging evidence on associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, we propose the Atypical Rhythm