Aline Frey

In France, around one-fifth of children have reading difficulties, and school results are highly dependent on their socio-economic status. In this context, the need for alternative and innovative teaching techniques holds importance, and more artistic approaches are promising. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a daily choral singing or creative writing practice on the cognitive and linguistic development of French children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Eighty children participated in this longitudinal study, for whom we measured several cognitive and linguistic skills at the beginning (pre-test) and end (post-test) of the school year. The results showed that children in “singing” classes improved both their reading skills and processing speed, while those in “writing” classes improved their reading skills and vocabulary. These results open up new avenues of learning support, specifically for children with difficulties.

Purpose: This article aimed at investigating the neural underpinnings of music-to-language transfer effects at the pre-attentive level of processing. Method: We conducted a longitudinal experiment with a test–training–retest procedure. Nonmusician adults were trained either on frequency (experimental group) or on intensity (control group) of harmonic tones using methods from psychophysics. Pre- and posttraining, we recorded brain electrical activity and we analyzed the mismatch negativity (MMN) and the P3a component both to harmonic complex sounds and to syllables varying in frequency. Results: Frequency training influenced the pre-attentive perception of pitch for large harmonic deviant sounds but not for syllables. Conclusion: Results are discussed in terms of near and far transfer effects from psychoacoustic training to pre-attentive pitch processing and as possibly showing some limits to transfer effects.