Role and efficacy of music therapy in learning disability: a systematic review

Background Kids with learning disabilities can succeed in school and improve their educational level with the help of a correct rehabilitation program; one of the most effective rehabilitation programs is music therapy. As there was little proof educating us knowledge regarding the function of music treatment in the improvement of learning incapacitated kids in this way, it was imperative to gather these bits of studies in a systematic review study to feature the role of music treatment in the restoration of learning disabilities. The aim of this work is to study the relation between music therapy and learning disabilities, to define the music therapy role and efficacy in the enhancement of learning disabled children to be able to delineate an efficient program therapy later on. This study is a systematic review and was carried out according to the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol. Main text The reviewed included studies were intervention studies that used different groups of cases (learning disabled, dyslexic, or with mathematical problems children) which received the music therapy versus different control groups (normal or dyslexic) receiving normal reading program, cognitive or placebo therapy; also they applied different methods and programs of music therapy. Most of the included studies reported that music therapy is a useful aiding factor in rehabilitation therapy of reading and phonological awareness disorders, however little evidence for positive effectiveness regarding spelling, arithmetic, writing, cognitive abilities, working memory, auditory attention, and rapid auditory processing. Conclusion Music therapy (with or without cognitive therapy) has an important and augmenting role in improving reading skills and phonological awareness problems in dyslexic children but does not replace the current methods of rehabilitation. There is little evidence found that music therapy (with or without cognitive therapy) is an effective aiding factor in rehabilitation therapy regarding spelling, arithmetic, writing, cognitive abilities, working memory, auditory attention, and rapid auditory processing in learning disabled children.

The Mediation Role of Dynamic Multisensory Processing Using Molecular Genetic Data in Dyslexia

Although substantial heritability has been reported and candidate genes have been identified, we are far from understanding the etiopathogenetic pathways underlying developmental dyslexia (DD). Reading-related endophenotypes (EPs) have been established. Until now it was unknown whether they mediated the pathway from gene to reading (dis)ability. Thus, in a sample of 223 siblings from nuclear families with DD and 79 unrelated typical readers, we tested four EPs (i.e., rapid auditory processing, rapid automatized naming, multisensory nonspatial attention and visual motion processing) and 20 markers spanning five DD-candidate genes (i.e., DYX1C1, DCDC2, KIAA0319, ROBO1 and GRIN2B) using a multiple-predictor/multiple-mediator framework. Our results show that rapid auditory and visual motion processing are mediators in the pathway from ROBO1-rs9853895 to reading. Specifically, the T/T genotype group predicts impairments in rapid auditory and visual motion processing which, in turn, predict poorer reading skills. Our results suggest that ROBO1 is related to reading via multisensory temporal processing. These findings support the use of EPs as an effective approach to disentangling the complex pathways between candidate genes and behavior.