The development of musical skills in children with mild intellectual disabilities

Abstract

No previous Hungarian research has examined the musical skills of children with mild intellectual disabilities, nor does the international literature abound in such studies. The goal of our research was to compare musical skills of typically developing (TD) children and of those with mild intellectual disabilities (MID). Our sample comprised third graders from these two populations. 59 MID children and 309 TD children participated in the data collection. The instrument was a musical skills test developed in a previous study that proved to be a reliable measure for MID children as well (66 items, Cronbach’s alpha=0.95). Data for the current research were compared tothose from a previous cross-sectional developmental study. According to our results, musical skills in MID children show a 2–3-year developmental delay. Components of musical ability are not as closely interrelated for MID children as they are for TD children. No significant correlation was found either between intelligence and development of musical skills or between parental educational level and musical skills in the case of MID children. In contrast, both variables show a significant relationship to musical skills among TD children.