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

Article

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.

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.

Related items

  1. One year in: the government is making decent down payments for the years ahead

    It’s fair to say it hasn’t been a straightforward first year for the government. 

  2. Britons back local leaders with fiscal firepower

    “Death and taxes,” they say, are life’s only certainties. But there’s a third - wherever taxes are controlled, power lies.

  3. Filling the funding gap: at what cost to Scotland’s public services?

    Last week the Scottish government published its delayed Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) which ‘provides the economic, funding and spending outlooks for the financial years 2025/26 to 2029/30’ and ‘the Government’s fiscal strategy to…