Music and Word Learning in Children Diagnosed with Developmental Language Disorder

Authors

Rebekah G. Sweeney, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

First Advisor

Adrienne Pitt

Second Advisor

Judith Harvey

Committee Members

Susan Loveall, Kevin Pitt

Date of this Version

4-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Citation

A thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate College at the University of Nebraska in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Science

Major: Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

Under the supervision of Professors Adrienne Pitt and Judith Harvey

Lincoln, Nebraska, April 2025

Comments

Copyright 2025, Rebekah G. Sweeney. Used by permission

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigates whether incorporating music into vocabulary interventions improves rate of learning and retention of words in children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Emerging literature continues to show the plentiful benefits of music as a tool for intervention in many settings, including the world of speech pathology (Levitin, 2024). However, it is also evident that there is a connection between struggling with language, and struggling with musical elements, such as rhythm and pitch perception, particularly in children with DLD (Boorom et al., 2022; Kreidler et al., 2023). This study seeks to tease out if music is an effective tool in treatment of DLD, and if so, how can clinicians optimize it?

Methods: A single-subject alternating treatments design was utilized to analyze two participants who were word-learning in a shared storybook condition and a shared storybook musical condition.

Results: Both participants learned more words from the music condition than the nonmusic condition. One participant showed stronger retention of the words in the music condition than the nonmusic condition, while the other participant did not retain any words at the two-week follow up.

Conclusions: Results should be interpreted with caution due to errors that affect the validity of the study, in addition to its small sample size. Post-hoc examination of the data supports the idea of music intervention for children with DLD, but further research is needed.

Advisors: Adrienne Pitt and Judith Harvey