A Rhythmic View of Reading: From word recognition to reading comprehension

A submission to IPPR's Britain's Got Brains competition.

One in five children leave primary school without being able to read. Based on her own research in schools, Marion Long has proposed a new rhythm-based scheme to improve reading amongst low-ability readers in primary schools following research that has linked a child's sense of rhythm to reading ability. In this scheme, children who can't clap in time to a simple piece of music are taught to stamp their feet in time to music for ten minutes a week. When this was trialled in schools, it improved children's reading comprehension.