ReviewWiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science2020
Is atypical rhythm a risk factor for developmental speech and language disorders?
Review in Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
81 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 208 citations in OpenAlex.
- The efficacy of rhythmic training for enhancing language and reading skills in children: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Musical rhythm abilities and risk for developmental speech-language problems and disorders: epidemiological and polygenic associations.Nature communications · 2025Pooled it
- Large-scale genome-wide analyses of stuttering.Nature genetics · 2025Pooled it
- The neuroanatomy of developmental language disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2024Pooled it
- Embodying Time in the Brain: A Multi-Dimensional Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis of 95 Duration Processing Studies.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- A Randomized Proof-of-Concept Study of Gamified Rhythmic Training in Autistic Children.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Trial
- Can you beat the music? Validation of a gamified rhythmic training in children with ADHD.Behavior research methods · 2025Trial
- How auditory rhythm perception shapes speech production: The influence of neural synchronization and rhythmic patterns.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Article
- Distinct Rhythmic Competencies Identified via Internet-Based Assessment.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Genome-wide investigation of prosody perception: Shared genetic influences between speech rhythm, musical rhythm, and reading traits.HGG advances · 2026Article
- Stability of Music Engagement Across Childhood, Adolescence, and Established Adulthood: A Longitudinal Twin and Adoption Study.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Words and Meters: Neural Evidence for a Connection Between Individual Differences in Statistical Learning and Rhythmic Ability in Infancy.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Rhythm Processing Across Development: Origins, Links to Language Processing, and Perspectives for Intervention.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Review
- Testing differential effects of periodicity and predictability in auditory rhythmic cueing of concurrent speech.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Differential contribution of working memory to auditory rhythm discrimination in stuttering and nonstuttering adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Investigating Generalizability of Top-Down Neural Representation of Meter in Infancy.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Impaired use of function words in European French-speaking children with developmental language disorder.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Neural Discrimination of Temporal Patterns-Associations to Dyslexia Risk, Language Abilities, and Music Activities.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Neural encoding of auditory rhythm beyond cortical auditory areas before the age of term.iScience · 2025Article
- Considering bias in language assessment with bilingual children.Bilingualism (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Although a growing literature points to substantial variation in speech/language abilities related to individual differences in musical abilities, mainstream models of communication sciences and disorders have not yet incorporated these individual differences into childhood speech/language development. This article reviews three sources of evidence in a comprehensive body of research aligning with three main themes: (a) associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, (b) musical rhythm in children with developmental speech/language disorders and common comorbid attentional and motor disorders, and (c) individual differences in mechanisms underlying rhythm processing in infants and their relationship with later speech/language development. In light of converging evidence on associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, we propose the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis, which posits that individuals with atypical rhythm are at higher risk for developmental speech/language disorders. The hypothesis is framed within the larger epidemiological literature in which recent methodological advances allow for large-scale testing of shared underlying biology across clinically distinct disorders. A series of predictions for future work testing the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis are outlined. We suggest that if a significant body of evidence is found to support this hypothesis, we can envision new risk factor models that incorporate atypical rhythm to predict the risk of developing speech/language disorders. Given the high prevalence of speech/language disorders in the population and the negative long-term social and economic consequences of gaps in identifying children at-risk, these new lines of research could potentially positively impact access to early identification and treatment. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Neuroscience > Development Linguistics > Language Acquisition.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.