An advantage to investigating learning disabilities in gifted children is that verbal IQ can be held relatively constant, and is less likely to be a confounding variable.  This page outlines a proposed study that seeks to investigate the relationship between reading and writing ability and measures of temporal processing, including measures of sequential processing, and measures of ability to keep a steady metre.

The study's hypothesis is that phonological memory span will tend to predict reading fluency, but that kinaesthetic memory for real-time intervals will predict writing fluency over and above any prediction made by reading measures.

Therefore, the research questions are these:
 

• Do measures of memory for sequences of rhythmic patterns predict scores on reading measures?

• Do measures of metrical steadiness predict writing over and above any prediction made by reading?

Answers will be sought through a quantitative, non-experimental study design.

Operational definitions:

• Temporal pattern memory accuracy: will be defined as the ability to remember sequences of rhythmic patterns.Two types of temporal pattern sequences will be considered:

• Word pattern sequences: sequences of words.

• Non-word pattern sequences: sequences of syllables or percussive impulses.

• Metronomic accuracy: of a rendering will be defined as the mean absolute deviation of time intervals between successive beats.

• Written fluency: will be defined as what is assessed by measures of text transcription fluency, irrespective of content.Aspects measured will include legibility; spelling; number of words and clauses produced in a given time.

• Reading fluency: will be defined as what is assessed by measures of decoding ability, irrespective of comprehension.Measures will include word recognition; word attack; fluency in reading aloud.

 

Method

Ethical considerations:

Informed written consent will be obtained from both children and parents.  Both children and parents will be provided with information about the study, and will in no way be coerced to participate.  They will be informed that that although no risks either, physical or psychological, are likely in the study, they may withdraw at any time if they feel uncomfortable.  Data will be stored in a locked filing cabinet, and all data sheets will identified by a subject number.  No names will be written on the data, and during data analysis, subject numbers only will be used.  Any testing assistants will be trained in the relevant techniques.  Permission will be sought to confirm psychometric information from psychologist’s reports; other information requested will be: history of speech pathology; and whether the subject takes, or has taken, specialist music lessons.  No further information will be requested. After the study, all subjects will be given information about the results as a whole.  Individual findings will be given on request. The study will be submitted for publication, and copies will be given to participants on request.

Test batteries

 1) a series of tasks designed to test their memory for rhythmic patterns, and their ability to maintain a steady tempo.

 2) a series of tasks designed to assess their reading, and written fluency. Information will be sought from subjects as to their previous music training, or any history of speech pathology, as these are possible extraneous variables. The measures will be administered during two 45-60 minute individual sessions, one for the rhythmic tasks and one for the language processing tasks.

The rhythmic test battery:  There will be three sets of tasks.  All are designed to test subjects’ ability to form a mental representation of a series of rhythmic patterns and to render them in a rhythmically coherent manner, both orally, and by tapping on an unpitched percussion instrument. Examples

The first set of tasks will consist of sequences of words and non-word syllabic groups selected to represent the musical notations of a quarter note; two eighth notes; and four sixteenths; the words used will be “snake” “monkey” and “alligator”; the non-verbal rhythmic syllables will be: ta; ti-ti; and taka-taka.   Words or syllabic groups will be arranged in sequences increasing in length from 2 to 8. They will be spoken to the subject at a predetermined tempo, and the subject will be asked to repeat them, orally in some tests, and by tapping on an unpitched percussion instrument in others.  Subjects will be asked to try to keep a steady beat, and practice tasks will be provided before the scoring is begun.

The second set of tasks will consist of similar sequences of patterns, but in this set, the pattern will not be spoken to the subject, who instead will be presented with a row of cards each with a visual representation of a rhythmic pattern in the form either of a picture (snake, alligator or monkey), or a symbolic representation (see Appendix A). The sequences will increase in length from 2 to 8. The subject will be asked to examine the row of cards, and told that when they have memorized the sequence, the cards will be removed, and they are to repeat the patterns from memory, in as regular a tempo as possible, using the animal words for the picture task, and syllabic patterns for the symbol task. They will also be given a similar task, where they tap the rhythmic patterns on an unpitched percussion instrument. Again, practice tasks will be provided.

The third set of tasks is similar to the second, except that subjects will be asked to perform sequences of an increasing number of patterns in an order of their choosing, and then to point to the picture or symbol cards representing the patterns, in the order in which they were performed. Again, this will be done both orally, and using an unpitched percussion instrument.

The first two sets of tasks will be scored in two ways; for the accuracy of the sequence of patterns (number of sequences reproduced correctly), and for the metronomic accuracy of the performance. The score for metronomic accuracy will be taken as the mean absolute deviation of the time intervals between the start of each rhythmic pattern, giving a perfect score =0.  In order to get a meaningful tempo score even if the subject stops to try and remember the sequence, metronome scoring will be stopped when a word is late by more than 2

standard deviations, and the score derived from the patterns performed up to that point.

The third set of tasks will be scored for metronomic accuracy in the same way as the other tasks, and sequential accuracy will be scored by recording whether the subjects points to the cards in the order in which they were performed.

Composite scores for metronomic accuracy and for sequential accuracy will be calculated for each subject.

The tasks will be piloted on adult volunteers, and modified where found to be necessary. Practice tasks will be provided. Recording of responses will be made with MIDI equipment, to allow for precise recording of timing performance.

Reading and writing measures will consist of measures from the Woodcock Johnson Psychoeducational Battery – Revised: Tests of Achievement (Standard Battery).
 

 

Analysis of Data

The results will be analysed as a two 3x3 ANOVAs.  Subjects will be categorized into three levels on the basis of their reading scores and their writing scores. Scores on the sequential accuracy tasks will be treated as one outcome variable, and scores on the metrical accuracy tasks will be treated as the other outcome variable. Age and verbal IQ scores will be entered as covariates.
 
 

	Best writers	Middling writers	Poorest writers	Marginal Means
Best readers	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Mean sequential or metrical scores for best readers
Middling readers	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Mean sequential or metrical scores for middling readers
Poorest readers	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Means of sequential and metrical scores	Mean sequential or metrical scores for poorest readers
Marginal means	Mean sequential or metrical scores for best writers	Mean sequential or metrical scores for middling writers	Mean sequential or metrical scores for poorest writers	Total mean sequential or metrical scores

Limitations : Because of the nature of the sample selection, generalizability will be limited. On the other hand the homogeneity of the mean verbal IQ of the sample obtained, should enable some generalisations to be made to others fitting the same criteria.  The fact that the rhythmic test battery has not been previously normed on a large random sample may threaten the internal validity of the study results; however the fact that each variable is measured in a variety of ways, may ensure that the measures for each construct have substantial validity.

Possibly confounding extraneous variables that may threaten the internal validity of the study include: history of speech pathology; amount of musical training of each subjects. In particular, musical training may confound correlations between the rhythmic tasks and age.
 
 

Directions for future studies:

If the findings show relationships between sequential and metronomic accuracy, and written language processing skills, rhythmical training should be investigated as a  possible remedial intervention for difficulties in written language processing problems in gifted children.

If the study findings show a relationship between metronomic accuracy and reading and written output skills, future studies could also investigate the efficacy of rhythmical training techniques, such as the Interactive Metronome^TM technique studied by Shaffer et al (1999), as an intervention for written output difficulties in verbally gifted children.