Musical Feature Processing and Learning Difficulties in Greek School-Aged Children: Piloting of a Screening Tool for Amusia

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The present study aimed to describe a novel screening test for amusia and compare test performance between Greek children with learning difficulties and typical school-aged children. Additionally, it examined whether variables such as sex, age, and formal music education affect musical processing skills. Methods: We describe the construction and pilot testing of a musical processing screening tool consisting of seven tasks tapping on discreet auditory processing processes: “dissonant intervals”, “out of tone”, “interval discrimination”, “musical semantic memory”, “rhythm”, “melodic completion”, and “emotion”. The study sample included 200 participants: 100 typical students and 100 students with learning difficulties. Results: As expected, only 8% of typical students scored low, compared to 59% of the students with learning difficulties, indicating a possible relationship between the two conditions. Furthermore, factors such as gender and music education did not significantly affect musical processing performance, whereas age and type of learning disorder did. Conclusions: This condensed screening tool holds high practical and scientific value for efficiently identifying amusia deficits. It offers a viable comparative assessment for clinical and educational settings and can be effectively applied to both pediatric and general populations.