Beat synchronization in preschoolers aids learning and reading skills

A team of researchers with Northwestern University in the U.S. has found that an ability to synchronize with a beat may be an indication of how well preschoolers will later do when developing reading skills.

In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes a study they undertook that involved testing for beat synchronization and sound recognition in preschoolers and what they found as a result.

Devising a test for reading aptitude prior to teaching children to read, it is believed, would help children of all levels learn better.

If a teacher knew beforehand that a child was going to have a reading disability, for example, that child could be placed into a program developed specifically for their needs, hopefully offering a better long term outcome.

Likewise, children with an exceptional aptitude for reading could be put into an accelerated program to prevent boredom.

Unfortunately, there is no such test, thus parents and teachers are left to discover a child's reading abilities on their own.

In this new effort, the researchers devised a study to find out if beat synchronicity skills might be used as the basis for such a test.

Reading specialists have suspected that there is a link between beat synchronization and both language and reading ability, reading and speech are both timing based after all.

To better understand that link the researchers arranged to test preschool volunteers.

In the first test, 35 children were given a toy drum and asked to beat it in time with an adult beating on a similar drum.

Those that could do it well were described as synchronizers, those that could not, as nonsyncronizers.

The same group of children then had electrodes pasted to their scalps to measure brain waves, as the researchers watched monitors, the children listened to sounds the researchers played, such as "da" and "ba" with no other sound, and then with background noise.

In studying the data, the researchers found that the children dubbed synchronizers in the first part of the experiment processed the played sounds with greater precision than did the nonsyncronizers.

Further tests revealed that the synchronizers did better on overall language abilities than the nonsyncronizers, which suggests that it might be possible to use the same process to test children as young as infants for later reading ability.

The researchers plan to continue monitoring the same children in the study for five years to see if their testing method is viable.

More information: Beat synchronization predicts neural speech encoding and reading readiness in preschoolers, Kali Woodruff Carr, PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1406219111

Supporting orphaned children in Africa: Stop AIDS Now

I was fortunate enough this week to stumble across a most remarkable event whilst walking through the streets of Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is many things to many people but to me it is a constant source of surprise and amazement, mainly because of it's window on the raw humanity of our world and also to the shear creativeness of our species.

I was walking towards Amsterdam's Nieuwmarkt, the open market space that spreads out in front of one of the ancient gates known as De Waag, which was once the Gestapo HQ for the German Occupying forces during WWII,

On most weekends this square, or 'plein,' can be occupied by street traders, rowdy tourists and the odd street performer but on this occasion it was occupied by strings of large cardboard dolls house.

Each one had been printed as a large cardboard 'cutout', in the manner of a children's toy and had been folded and constructed into the form of a doll's house. Individually they stood 5' tall.

This in itself was a creative and amazing piece of art but in addition to this the organisors, Stop AIDS Now (Holland), had arranged this assemblage of, possibly 100+ dolls' houses, into the form of a crossed ribbon. Almost filling the entire square with them.

The positioning of each doll's house was precisely placed as was the location of the event because not more than a stones-throw away is Amsterdam's Red light district.

To advertise the event the organisers had arranged for some Dutch celebrities to act as ambassadors, Angela Groothuizen en Nicolette Kluijver, to pose for photographs and to be interviewed by Dutch TV channels. An excellent event, well publicised.

I took the liberty, for you my readers, to climb the official photographer's platform to capture a few photographs, to better record the event and to experience the layout in it's entirety.

The organiser's representatives were too busy speaking to the TV crews and celebrities to be able to discuss the event with me, at this point. So, I continued on my way and returned later when things were quieter.

I was told that Stop AIDS Now had devised this campaign to highlight the plight of children in Africa who had become orphaned by AIDS, and that these children were now struggling to raise their siblings, unaided, acting as a substitute parent.

They very kindly gave me a small version of the cardboard cutout doll's house, which acts as a collection box. This is shown below.

These small cardboard versions are available from Stop Aids Now's Dutch website but feel free to print out the picture below and construct it from cardboard. Any money you collect will be put to good use.

I hope, when you look at it, it will remind you of the children in this world who have been denied a full and enjoyable childhood by circumstances beyond their control and of the blight that AIDS has brought to all humanity.