The Relationship between Phonological Awareness and Music Aptitude

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between phonological awareness and music aptitude. I administered the Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (IMMA) to second-grade students in a rural school in Pennsylvania (N = 17). Speech-language specialists administered a hearing screening and The Phonological Awareness Test 2 (PAT-2) individually to participants and scored the measures. Findings indicated a moderate, positive relationship between PAT-2 standardized composite scores and IMMA raw Tonal subtest scores (r =.485). A linear regression indicated IMMA raw Tonal subtest scores predicted PAT-2 standardized composite scores. The relationship between music aptitude and phonological awareness has implications for students, music teachers, and professionals who may remediate literacy skills, such as reading specialists, speech-language pathologists, and music therapists.