Music 'is beneficial for dyslexic children'

Posted by SchoolDays Newshound on 23/02/2010. Music 'is beneficial for dyslexic children'

Tags: Primary School News Secondary School News

Listening to music on a regular basis can be highly beneficial for children with dyslexia, it has been claimed.

Sheila Oglethorpe, spokesperson for the British Dyslexia Association, said there is plenty of research to suggest that this is the case.

"The Institute of Education has a lot of resources on it and there is a recent paper by UCL professor Susan Hallam which has drawn together all of the research on music and dyslexia and how music can help dyslexic learners," she commented.

Ms Oglethorpe suggested that there is also a great deal of "circumstantial evidence" that backs up this theory.

Research recently presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting by a Northwestern University neuroscientist revealed that music can help to shape the sensory system.

It was also claimed that playing an instrument can help children to improve their speech.

Written by Donal Walsh

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Comments

Ann Farris

(26-02-2010 02:27)

Hello:

I am both dyslexia and hyperlexic and concur that music is helpful with these conditions. As a child my mother took me regularly to the symphony on Sunday afternoons - we didn't know I had both conditions - and I always felt better afterwards. I was away from words and linear thinking and sinking into a spatial environment. My school work was easier on Monday. It was easier to concentrate.

Today, I don't use music when I want to learn - my body, mind and spirit want to disappear in music and that makes it impossible to learn - but I listen to classical music all the time when not working in a linear mode.