In an article published by The Wall Street Journal on June 20, British researchers claim to have identified a link between musical ability and reading comprehension. As part of their study, 64 children—33 of whom had been diagnosed with dyslexia—were asked to listen to sequences of musical notes. On average, the dyslexic students could tell if the sequences were the same or different only 63% of the time, as compared to 83% of the time for normal readers. Additionally, researchers found that an inability to recognize rhythmic patterns in music was a strong predictor of a student’s reading level, accounting for 42% of the variation in reading ability. Musical ability also was a strong predictor of deficits in phonological awareness, including the ability (or inability) to recognize rhyming patterns. Follow-up studies are now being designed to test whether music instruction can improve reading performance for dyslexic students.