Self-Reported Music-Reading Difficulties and Developmental Musical Dyslexia among University Students

Author: Horng-Yih Lee(Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University)

Vol.&No.：Vol. 53, No. 3
Date：December 2008
Pages：29-46
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2008125303002

Abstract：

This study was concerned with self-reported music-reading difficulties and their possible relationship to developmental musical dyslexia. The study contained two parts. In part 1, participants completed a screening questionnaire including questions addressing demographic background, self-assessment of music-reading difficulties, years of music education, and musical interests. In part 2, participants completed the three tests of the Music-Reading Ability Assessment (MRAA) developed by Lee and his collaborators. Nearly 39% of 504 first-year university students reported their own music-reading difficulties. They were troubled by staff-reading and not interested in musical lessons. Results for each of the MRAA tests and composite scores for all tests showed clear a tendency for participants with self-reported music-reading difficulties to obtain lower scores than participants who reported that they did not have such difficulties. Neither the amount of music education nor gender affected the above results. Finally, only 9% of all participants actually met the criteria for music dyslexia. This prevalence was in agreement with that predicted by other studies. On the other hand, it means that the majority of those who reported ‘music-reading difficulties’ did not meet the criteria for music dyslexics; that is, self-reported music-reading difficulties alone were not a strong indicator of music dyslexia. Thus an encouraging conclusion of this research project is that many individuals who consider themselves to have “music-reading difficulties” may be not, in fact, be “music dyslexics,” and these individuals should be supported in any of their efforts to proceed with a music education.

Keywords：music education, prevalence, developmental music dyslexia, learning disability

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