Chinese word reading advantage in musically trained children: the role of segmental phonological awareness but not tone awareness

Music cognition research has explored whether and how music training improves word reading. However, extant theories and empirical studies have only focused on alphabetical languages, limiting the current theoretical understanding to alphabetical languages alone. This cross-sectional study evaluated (1) whether musically trained children outperformed untrained children in Chinese word reading and (2) the relative mediating roles of segmental phonological and tone awareness in the relation between music perception and Chinese word reading in musically trained children. We recruited 86 musically trained children and untrained children with similar family income. They were tested on Chinese word reading, segmental phonological awareness, tone awareness, and music perception. Musically trained children outperformed musically untrained children on Chinese word reading, segmental phonological awareness, and tone awareness. Segmental phonological awareness mediated the relation between music perception and word reading in musically trained children, whereas tone awareness did not. This study provides initial evidence supporting the potential of music training to improve Chinese word reading, laying an empirical foundation for future music training studies. Moreover, the findings reflect a possible intervention mechanism in which music training improves Chinese word reading by enhancing segmental phonological awareness. From a theoretical perspective, the findings support the segmental phonological awareness account but not the tone awareness account.