Music-based versus story-based intervention: a comparative study on phonological awareness in children with intellectual disability

Objectives Children with intellectual disability (ID) often experience significant delays in phonological awareness skills, which can impact their ability to acquire literacy effectively. Traditional interventions may not be always effective for them due to cognitive and linguistic challenges. Hence, this study aimed to compare the effectiveness of music-based and story-based interventions on phonological awareness skills in children with ID.Method Eight children having mild to moderate ID aged 6–10 years were randomly assigned to either music-based or story-based intervention. Pre and post assessment of language and emergent literacy skills including phonological awareness skills were done to evaluate the interventions.Results Post-intervention results showed increased phonological awareness and overall language scores in both groups, while pre-post differences were not statistically significant. When comparing both interventions, story-based intervention showed significantly higher scores for alphabet knowledge and word awareness in English, while comparatively higher mean scores observed for word recognition, alliteration awareness, and phoneme awareness in both Malayalam and English. However, music-based intervention showed comparatively higher mean scores for rhyme awareness in Malayalam, syllable awareness in both English and Malayalam and Non-word Repetition skills.Conclusions Although statistically significant effects were not observed, post-intervention trends indicate that both music-based and story-based interventions may support phonological awareness and language development in children with ID. Small sample size, lack of control group, and shorter intervention duration limits statistical significance and generalizability. Future research should address these limitations and explore the combined effect of music and story-based interventions in children with ID and Global developmental Delay.