Browsing by Author "Polet, Liisa"

Objectives. The aim of the current study was to explore whether participation in short-term music intervention can increase phonological awareness and the size of vocabulary in 5–6-years-old children. Phonological processing is defined by the ability to recognize and modulate small units of words, like phonemes. Vocabulary is a group of words that represents specific concepts such as objects (nouns). Both phonological processing and the size of vocabulary are known to be related to later reading ability in children. It is also known that children with musical experience perform better on tests measuring language abilities than children without musical experience. Single studies have also reported that short-term music intervention enhances phonological awareness and development of vocabulary in preschool children but more research on this theme is needed. Methods. The sample consisted of 64 children in two cohorts. There were three groups of children: an experimental group with music intervention (n=20), an experimental group with dance intervention (n=24) and a control group (n=20). Music and dance interventions took place in the kindergartens and lasted 3‒6 months. Before and after the interventions the groups were compared with tests of phonological processing and the size of vocabulary. The comparison was made with repeated measures analysis of variance. Results. Differences in the phonological processing or the size of vocabulary between the groups were not found. All children performed better on post-tests than pre-tests. The results of the current study indicate that short-term music intervention does not enhance phonological processing or development of vocabulary in preschool children. The results are contradictory to previous research and highlight the importance of more precise conceptualization of music intervention in the future.