Musical Feature Processing and Learning Difficulties in Greek School-Aged Children: Piloting of a Screening Tool for Amusia
Abstract
Highlights What are the main findings? A high rate (59%) of suspected amusia was identified in children with learning difficulties compared to typical peers (8%). Demographic and background factors, including sex and music education, do not significantly impact performance of the music processing evaluation, whereas age and type of learning disorder did. What are the implications of the main findings? The 15 min acoustic battery provides an efficient, quick screening tool for identifying children at risk for amusia in educational and clinical settings. Detecting amusia in children with learning difficulties enables targeted multidisciplinary interventions for auditory-musical processing deficits. Abstract Background/Objectives: The present study aimed to describe a novel screening test for amusia and compare test performance between Greek children with learning difficulties and typical school-aged children. Additionally, it examined whether variables such as sex, age, and formal music education affect musical processing skills. Methods: We describe the construction and pilot testing of a musical processing screening tool consisting of seven tasks tapping on discreet auditory processing processes: “dissonant intervals”, “out of tone”, “interval discrimination”, “musical semantic memory”, “rhythm”, “melodic completion”, and “emotion”. The study sample included 200 participants: 100 typical students and 100 students with learning difficulties. Results: As expected, only 8% of typical students scored low, compared to 59% of the students with learning difficulties, indicating a possible relationship between the two conditions. Furthermore, factors such as gender and music education did not significantly affect musical processing performance, whereas age and type of learning disorder did. Conclusions: This condensed screening tool holds high practical and scientific value for efficiently identifying amusia deficits. It offers a viable comparative assessment for clinical and educational settings and can be effectively applied to both pediatric and general populations.