First school year tapping predicts children's third-grade literacy skills

Rhythmic skills have been repeatedly found to relate to children’s early literacy skills. Using rhythmic tasks to predict language and reading performance seems a promising direction as they can be easily administered early as a screening test to identify at-risk children. In the present study, we measured Hungarian children’s (N = 37) general cognitive abilities (working memory, non-verbal reasoning and rapid automatized naming), language and literacy skills (vocabulary, word reading, phonological awareness and spelling) and finger tapping performance in a longitudinal design in the first and third grades. We applied metronome stimuli in three tempi (80, 120, 150 bpm) using a synchronization-continuation paradigm and also measured participants’ spontaneous motor tempo. While children’s synchronization asynchrony was lower in third than in the first grade, with the exception of the slow-tempo trials, tapping consistency and continuation tapping success showed no development in this period. First-year tapping consistency in the slow-tempo tasks was associated with third-year reading and spelling outcomes. Our results show that the relation between tapping performance and literacy skills persists throughout the third school year, making the sensorimotor synchronization task a potentially effective instrument for predicting literacy outcomes, and a useful tool for early screening of reading difficulties.