Rhythm and Mind: Bridges in Early Language Childhood Development
Abstract
Rhythm processing has been proposed as a key neurocognitive mechanism for language acquisition, supporting syllabic segmentation and temporal coordination of auditory attention. This study examined the relationship between rhythmic sensitivity and early linguistic and cognitive development in monolingual Spanish-speaking infants in Mexico. Eighty developing children aged 36 months participated in a rhythm discrimination task adapted from previous work, in which they judged whether melodic sequences shared the same rhythmic pattern. Children performed above chance, indicating reliable rhythm discrimination. Linguistic and cognitive abilities were assessed using subtests from the WPPSI-III, including expressive and receptive vocabulary, information, object assembly, and block design. Correlational analyses revealed significant associations between rhythm discrimination performance and expressive vocabulary, as well as visuospatial abilities measured by object assembly and block design. No significant relations were found with receptive vocabulary. These findings suggest rhythm sensitivity is linked to verbal production and visuospatial planning abilities during early development.