A Timing Disruption in the Brain Dyslexia, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Stuttering, Autism Spectrum Disorder How Metronome and Music Can Help

A Timing Disruption in the Brain

 

Dyslexia, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Stuttering, Autism Spectrum Disorder

 

How Metronome and Music Can Help

 

By Matthew Glavach, Ph.D.

This issue of NASET’s Practical Teacher was written by Matthew Glavach, Ph.D. The author discusses research relating to a timing disruption in the brain where the rhythm of words does not match the rhythm of the brain. Included are activities that are easy and fun to help the brain connect and synchronize the body’s internal clock. These include the use of music, synchronized metronome tapping, and clapping motions. Activities as simple as clapping hands and singing help the brain connect and synchronize.  Researchers have observed that many children with learning disorders and learning delays struggle to keep a rhythmically repeating sound pattern, such as tapping and clapping to a beat.  The timing disruption can manifest itself in children with dyslexia, learning disabilities, stuttering, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders. Researchers have found that children who recognize differences in rhythm patterns and tap and clap to a beat learn to read and spell more easily, have improved communication skills, and better attention to tasks. The following is some background about these conditions and how rhythm can help a timing disruption in the brain.

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The author discusses research relating to a timing disruption in the brain where the rhythm of words does not match the rhythm of the brain. Included are activities that are easy and fun to help the brain connect and synchronize the body’s internal clock. These include the use of music, synchronized metronome tapping, and clapping motions.

Activities as simple as clapping hands and singing help the brain connect and synchronize.  Researchers have observed that many children with learning disorders and learning delays struggle to keep a rhythmically repeating sound pattern, such as tapping and clapping to a beat.

The timing disruption can manifest itself in children with dyslexia, learning disabilities, stuttering, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders.

Researchers have found that children who recognize differences in rhythm patterns and tap and clap to a beat learn to read and spell more easily, have improved communication skills, and better attention to tasks.

The following is some background about these conditions and how rhythm can help a timing disruption in the brain.

DYSLEXIA

Phonological Dyslexia is the most common type of dyslexia. It affects an individual’s ability to match sounds to symbols and break down the sounds of language. People with phonological dyslexia struggle to decode or sound out words.

According to Professor Usha Goswami “Children who are dyslexic struggle with speech rhythm.” Her research shows that the rhythm of words does not match the rhythm of the brain”. Dyslexic children have difficulty matching the rhythmic patterns of spoken words. There is a connection between keeping a steady beat and what might appear to be the unrelated skills of reading and writing.

Providing rhythmic activities through music, songs, and a metronome can lead many to reading. 

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)

Children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can have difficulty sustaining focus and difficulty managing emotions. They can have difficulty telling whether two sounds have the same or different times. This could be related to rhythm as they struggle to keep a steady beat. This can affect attention and timing in reading. 

Also, there is a reduction in the chemical dopamine in the brain, and this may be why children with ADHD often need creative and novel experiences – to raise dopamine levels in the reward center of the brain. Singing and exercising increase dopamine and reduce cortisol which is a stress hormone. Early research shows that listening to or playing music may help ease inattentiveness in both children and adults. Metronome training has been found to help improve attention and other skills in people with ADHD.

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

Autism spectrum disorder occurs in one to two percent of children, mostly boys. Autism includes difficulty with social interactions, repetitive behaviors, and difficulties in communication.

Children who can work with music and metronome activities can improve their conversation skills and body language awareness. Also, music activates areas of the brain that relate to social ways of thinking.

STUTTERING

Stuttering is a speech disorder involving frequent problems with normal fluency and flow of speech.  Stuttering is most common among children between the ages of two and six when the brain regions that support spoken language are still developing. Most children grow out of it, but stuttering remains in one out of one hundred adults. Males stutter more than females.

Stuttering depends on specific timing. Ninety percent of the adults who stutter have difficulty synchronizing finger taps to a metronome.

A metronome can help with stuttering by training a person’s speech to a consistent rhythm and beat, which can lead to immediate fluency improvements.

Singing can help stuttering by engaging the right hemisphere of the brain which can help relieve the effects of weakness or damage to the left side of the brain. Singing uses different neural pathways in the brain compared to normal speech. One study found that simply singing a known song can reduce stuttering. Speech therapy and melodic intonation therapy are both successful with stuttering.

LEARNING DISABILITIES

Rhythm improves coordination and motor planning so that children can process information more accurately. 

MUSIC AND SONG

Tapping, clapping, and singing to music helps with a timing disruption in the brain by addressing problems of timing initiation and coordination. Research has provided evidence that reading impairments in many children including deficiencies in phonological processing may be associated with non-linguistic rapid temporal auditory processing problems.

Music and songs are a powerful way to learn the sounds for reading and to learn to read. Almost every part of the brain is involved in music. If one pathway is weak, music can help others. Songs and music improve auditory discrimination as songs can be slower and stretch out the sounds. Lyric memory is stronger when embedded in songs.

MUSIC TRAINING

Young children who take music lessons have stronger preliteracy skills, phonemic awareness, and perform better on reading comprehension tests than nonmusicians. Music provides these benefits because it engages nearly every area of the brain, not simply left or right.

METRONOME

A metronome is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a uniform interval which can be set by the user in beats per minute BPM. Metronomes are commonly used by musicians to maintain a consistent tempo. More recently it is used to enhance cognitive and motor skills by combining whole body movements with cognitive tasks which help synchronize the body’s internal clock.

METRONOME ACTIVITIES

These activities are not only enjoyable but are beneficial to a child’s development. The metronome can help to think and process in rhythm.  Brain activity is increasing as you work with the metronome. New neural connections are being made.

METRONOME MOVEMENT ACTIVITIES

More than one activity can be practiced at a time and use different areas-general, clapping, etc. Include activities that children know and enjoy. Keep a notebook to show improvement and times.

                       

__WALK TO A BEAT (Start about 110 Beats Per Minute. Increase as able.)

__STEP TO A BEAT (Set the metronome to a slow speed and     adjust.)

__STOP AND GO ON A BEAT.  This can be followed by starting on a second beat and stopping on a third beat etc.

__BOUNCE A BALL TO A BEAT. (100 BPM, Catch the ball on every other beat. etc.)

__JUMP TO A BEAT (Set the Metronome to a slow speed and adjust.)

__Jump forward and backward. (50 to 60 BPM) 

__Jump only on a second, third, beat etc.

__STEP FORWARD AND BACKWARD ON A BEAT (Put tape on the floor to show where to step.) 

__STEP FORWARD, BACKWARD AND SIDEWAYS ON A BEAT. (50 to 60 BPM) 

METRONOME CLAPPING ACTIVITIES

__Practice Clapping to every other beat.

    (CLAP click CLAP click CLAP click)

__Practice clapping to every beat. Tap foot while clapping.

     (CLAP – TAP – CLAP – TAP – CLAP etc.)

__Clap to every third beat, etc. (Click, Click – CLAP, etc.)

METRONOME TAPPING

___Practice tapping on every other beat.  (Tap – click – Tap – click, etc.)  Use dominant hand first, writing hand.

___Practice tapping on every beat. (Tap -Tap – Tap, etc.)

___Tap to a pattern.  Repeat the pattern from memory.

HAND AND FOOT TRIGGERS (Practice Often)

The combination of hand and foot movements using both the hand and foot triggers has been found to improve reading and learning.

CLAP AND TAP TO BEAT. (Set the Metronome to a slow speed and increase speed as children are able.)

Clap both hands together.

Tap hip.

Clap both hands together.

Tap thigh.

Clap both hands together.

Tap foot.

Clap both hands together.

Tap toes

As children are able, tap on opposite sides, (right hand to left hip, left hand to right hip and continue to thigh taps and the rest.) This encourages communication between both brain hemispheres.

ADVANED ACTIVITIES

After moving to a beat, you can progress to higher level skills based on ability: dancing, jumping jacks, skipping, and jumping rope to a beat. etc. 

METRONOME READING (Sounds to a Beat)

Set the metronome to about 40-50 BPM.  It is best to start by saying the letter sounds on every other beat, then go to each beat.

Say the sounds, not the letter names. Just stretch the word. f – a – n. Continue with other words, then read whole words to a beat.

READING TO A BEAT   (Reading in Phrases)

Practice reading with the metronome to improve reading speed and comprehension

Read a story together so students get a feel for the natural phrases in the story.  Then the student reads the story (words and phrases) to a metronome beat.  Phrase-Cued Reading works well for this activity.

Literacy Thru Songs and Rhythm by Matthew Glavach, Ph.D., uses songs, and rhythm (metronome) to overcome / help reading and learning disorders such as dyslexia, learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and learning disabilities. Available on Amazon.

REFERENCES

1. Dehaene, Stanislas. (2009) Reading in the Brain. P.31. Penguin Group:  USA

2. Collins, Anita. (2022) The Music Advantage. P.66. Australia: Allen and Unwin

3. Levitin, Daniel J. (2006) This Is Your Brain on Music. 161, Dutton, New York, NY

4. Collins, Anita. (2022) The Music Advantage. P.70. Australia: Allen and Unwin

5. Collins, Anita. (2022) The Music Advantage. P.92-94. Australia: Allen and Unwin

8. Rogers, Susan. (2022) This is What it Sounds Like. P.156.New York, NY: Norton and Company

 9. Rasinski, T.V. (2003). The fluent reader. New York, New York: Scholastic

A substantial body of research has explored the possible role of rhythmic skills in addition to well-established predictors of early literacy, such as short-term verbal memory (Peng et al., 2018), rapid automatized naming (RAN; Kirby et al., 2003) and phonological awareness (Goswami, 2018). Rhythmical skills have been associated with language and literacy investigating individuals with typical (David et al., 2007; Gordon et al., 2015; Bonacina et al., 2018; Politimou et al., 2019) and atypical language development, specifically developmental dyslexia (Flaugnacco et al., 2014; Woodruff Carr et al., 2014; Flaugnacco et al., 2015; Colling et al., 2017) and specific language impairment (Alcock et al., 2000; Corriveau and Goswami, 2009; Cumming et al., 2015).