Phonological awareness plays a very important role in early literacy in the preschool period.
Therefore, the lack of phonological abilities could cause serious problems for the children later.
Researches confirmed a positive relation between phonological awareness and musical abilities,
especially in the field of auditory processing mechanisms they both share. Music perception as
well as phonological awareness are based on auditory perception and manipulation of auditory
stimuli. Both encompass segmentation of speech and music elements into smaller units. They
also share temporal and spectral parameters of sound and some of the neuroanatomical areas.
Shared perceptual characteristics of music and language enable us to use one domain to affect
the other, especially in preschool children. With musical developmental training it is easier for
children to focus on different auditory stimuli and structure of language, helping them to
improve auditory perception as well as metacognitive and metalingual skills. Theoretical part
of the thesis aims to present the knowledge of common characteristics of elements that music
and language share and that make the connections between them possible. The empirical part
is researching the connection between the developmental level of musical abilities (perception
of rhythm and melody) and the developmental stage of phonological awareness in relation to
creativity in musical and linguistic fields of preschool children.
Positive results of this research may form the basis for planning musical activities, which would
improve phonological awareness in preschool children, thereby simplifying the literacy process
and adding a new perspective and developmental basis. Relations in the field of creativity,
however, bring a new dimension to the integration of creative thinking, which could trigger an
emergence of new tools for developing language domain.
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