The impact of musical training on reading ability in children: the mediating role of working memory

Reading ability plays an important role in children's cognitive and emotional development and school adjustment. Although musical training has been associated with children's reading-related abilities, the cognitive mechanisms underlying this relationship remain insufficiently understood. This study examined the relationship among musical training, working memory, and reading ability in children from multilingual backgrounds in frontier regions.

A combined cross-sectional comparison and intervention study design was used. Study 1 compared children with musical training and children without musical training and examined the mediating role of working memory in the relationship between musical ability and reading-related outcomes. Study 2 implemented a 12-week music-based rhythmic movement training program consisting of 20 sessions among lower-grade children without prior musical training.

In Study 1, children with musical training performed better than children without musical training in musical ability, working memory, and some reading tasks. Working memory partially mediated the relationship between musical ability and antonym judgment and fully mediated the relationship between musical ability and sentence proposition judgment. In Study 2, children in the music intervention group showed improvements in musical ability, working memory accuracy, antonym judgment, and sentence proposition judgment.

These findings provide evidence from both an associational pathway and an intervention context, suggesting that working memory may represent a possible cognitive pathway linking musical training to the development of some reading-related abilities. Music-based rhythmic movement training may provide a feasible approach for supporting reading-related development among children from multilingual backgrounds in frontier regions.