The Importance of Beat Competency in Children

Lynne Kenney, PsyD @drlynnekenney

Beat competency, the capacity to perceive a steady pulse and synchronize movement with it, is a foundational skill that emerges early and shapes children's developmental trajectories. Long before a child reads a word or solves a math problem, the brain is learning to predict, anticipate, and time.

Beat perception is a window into how efficiently the brain integrates auditory, motor, and attentional systems. When a young child claps to a rhythm, marches to a drumbeat, or sways in time to a song, neural networks linking the auditory cortex, basal ganglia, supplementary motor area, and cerebellum fire in coordinated patterns that scaffold attention, language, and self-regulation.

The early childhood years are a sensitive period for building beat competency. Research on neural entrainment, the phase-alignment of low-frequency brain oscillations to external rhythmic input, shows that the auditory and motor systems mature on different timelines and only gradually integrate.

Bouwer and colleagues (2020) describe entrainment as the mechanism through which the brain tracks temporal regularity to anticipate upcoming events, distributing attention efficiently across time and supporting both speech and music perception. When children move to a beat in preschool and the early elementary years, they are practicing the auditory-motor coupling that underlies fluent reading, attentive listening, and coordinated motor planning. This is why rhythmic coordinative movement belongs at the heart of early learning, not at the margins.

The academic stakes are substantial. Beat synchronization in childhood predicts phonological awareness, expressive language, grammar, and early literacy outcomes. Children who can keep a steady beat tend to demonstrate stronger reading readiness, because the same neural timing systems that parse a musical pulse also parse the rapid acoustic transitions of speech. Rhythmic priming studies have shown that even brief exposure to a regular beat can facilitate subsequent grammar processing in young children. In other words, beat competency is not a peripheral musical talent; it is a domain-general timing skill that supports the learning brain across cognitive systems.

A growing body of research indicates that many neurodiverse children have measurable difficulty moving to a beat. Ladányi, Persici, Fiveash, Tillmann, and Gordon (2020) articulated the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis, which posits that individuals with atypical rhythm are at higher risk for developmental speech and language disorders, including developmental language disorder, dyslexia, and stuttering.

A 2025 population-scale epidemiological investigation by Gordon and colleagues, with a combined sample of nearly 40,000 individuals, confirmed that rhythm impairment is a significant risk factor for speech-language disorders in the general population. Lense, Ladányi, Rabinowitch, Trainor, and Gordon (2021) have similarly framed rhythm and timing as shared vulnerabilities across neurodevelopmental disorders. EEG research with children who have dyslexia, including work by Colling, Noble, and Goswami, demonstrates atypical neural entrainment to an auditory beat (2017) and atypical sensorimotor coupling during tapping, suggesting that the difficulty is rooted in both perceptual and motor timing systems rather than in motor coordination alone.

The reasons neurodiverse children struggle to move to a beat are increasingly clear. Differences in basal ganglia timing, cerebellar function, and the strength of auditory-motor coupling disrupt the brain's ability to generate accurate temporal predictions. When the internal beat is unstable, attention does not land where it needs to, language input is parsed less efficiently, and motor responses arrive early, late, or out of phase. This is precisely why beat-based, rhythmic coordinative movement is so promising as an early intervention.

Practiced consistently in preschool and primary classrooms, structured rhythm activities can strengthen the very timing networks that are vulnerable in dyslexia, ADHD, developmental language disorder, and related profiles. Beat competency, supported through movement, music, and predictable rhythmic routines, gives every child, neurotypical and neurodiverse alike, a stronger foundation for learning.

Learn more about rhythm and beat by watching our Move More, Learn More podcast with Dean and Professor Kate Williams, PhD, as well as our interview with Ali Golding, Dance Instructor and Dance Scientist, with MovementWorks, UK, on YouTube.

Follow Dr. Kenney on Instagram for updated program information and resources.

Selected References

Bouwer, F. L., Honing, H., & Slagter, H. A. (2020). Beat-based and Memory-based Temporal Expectations in Rhythm: Similar Perceptual Effects, Different Underlying Mechanisms. Journal of cognitive neuroscience, 32(7), 1221–1241. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01529

Colling, L. J., Noble, H. L., & Goswami, U. (2017). Neural Entrainment and Sensorimotor Synchronization to the Beat in Children with Developmental Dyslexia: An EEG Study. Frontiers in neuroscience, 11, 360. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2017.00360

Kuczala, M. & Kenney, L. (2026). Move More, Learn More! Harnessing the Brain-Body-Connection in Early Childhood. Teachers College Press.

Ladányi, E., Persici, V., Fiveash, A., Tillmann, B., & Gordon, R. L. (2020). Is atypical rhythm a risk factor for developmental speech and language disorders?. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science, 11(5), e1528. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1528

Lense, M. D., Ladányi, E., Rabinowitch, T. C., Trainor, L., & Gordon, R. (2021). Rhythm and timing as vulnerabilities in neurodevelopmental disorders. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 376(1835), 20200327. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0327

Nayak, S., Ladányi, E., Eising, E., Mekki, Y., Nitin, R., Bush CT, Gustavson DE, Anglada-Tort, M., Lancaster, H.S., Mosing MA, Ullén, F., Magne, C.L., Fisher, S.E., Jacoby, N., Gordon, R.L. (2025). Musical rhythm abilities and risk for developmental speech-language problems and disorders: epidemiological and polygenic associations. Nat Commun. 16(1):8355. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60867-2. PMID: 40993126; PMCID: PMC12460677.