Can sensitivity to auditory frequency modulation predict children's phonological and reading skills?

UNDERSTANDING how letter units represent particular speech sounds is a cruc ial skill for developing competent reading skills. However it is not known whether such phonological ability is constrained by basic auditory capaciti es such as those necessary for detecting the frequency modulations characte ristic of many phonemes. Here we show that nearly 40% of the variability in normal children's phonological and reading skills can be predicted from th eir sensitivity to 2 Hz frequency modulated (FM) tones. This relationship d oes not hold for sensitivity to 240 Hz FM. Because lower but not higher rat es of FM provide information important for speech comprehension, dynamic au ditory sensitivity is likely to play an important role in children's phonol ogical and reading skill development. NeuroReport 10:2045-2050 (C) 1999 Lip pincott Williams & Wilkins.