Cette étude examine la corrélation entre les habiletés musicales perceptives (discrimination de la hauteur et de la durée) et les habiletés de conscience phonologique (identification de la syllabe, de la rime et du phonème) auprès d’enfants francophones de quatre et cinq ans (n=61). Les participants ont complété une épreuve de conscience phonologique, une épreuve de perception musicale ainsi qu’une tâche d’habiletés cognitives non verbales (mémoire spatiale). L’analyse des résultats globaux obtenus à l’épreuve de perception musicale et à l’épreuve de conscience phonologique révèle une corrélation positive modérée. Il apparaît, d’une façon plus particulière, que les résultats aux tâches de discrimination de la hauteur et de durée soient uniquement corrélés à ceux de la tâche d’identification de la syllabe. Il est possible de croire que de meilleures habiletés musicales perceptives améliorent, voire bonifient, le traitement de la syllabe chez les enfants francophones d’âge préscolaire.

Research led with English, Turkish and Slovak-speaking preschoolers have shown positive correlations between musical perceptual skills and phonological awareness. However, limited studies have been conducted in other linguistic contexts. In that regard, the aim of this study is to examine the correlation between musical perceptual skills (pitch and duration discrimination) and phonological awareness (syllable, rhyme and phoneme identification; rhyme identification) among 61 Francophone preschoolers (34 girls and 27 boys, mean age 4.7 months). Each participant completed a phonological awareness test, a music perception test and a non-verbal cognitive abilities task (spatial memory). The relationship between musical perceptual skills and phonological awareness was investigated using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity. There was a moderate positive correlation between the two variables. The syllable identification task was the only one correlated with both pitch and duration discrimination tasks. It is possible to believe that better perceptual musical abilities improve, even boost, syllable treatment among Francophone preschoolers. Since rhyme and phoneme awareness seem to emerge after syllable awareness, this could explain why no correlation was observed with musical perceptual skills among those young participants.