{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T13:32:14Z","timestamp":1787923934475,"version":"build-2784847793"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787875200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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: \u201cdissonant intervals\u201d, \u201cout of tone\u201d, \u201cinterval discrimination\u201d, \u201cmusical semantic memory\u201d, \u201crhythm\u201d, \u201cmelodic completion\u201d, and \u201cemotion\u201d. 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13091156","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]],"date-time":"2026-08-28T12:27:46Z","timestamp":1787920066000},"page":"1156","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Musical Feature Processing and Learning Difficulties in Greek School-Aged Children: Piloting of a Screening Tool for Amusia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Sofia","family":"Manika","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Speech & Language Therapy, University of Patras, 26504 Rio, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1019-7903","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nikolaos","family":"Trimmis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Speech & Language Therapy, University of Patras, 26504 Rio, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"resources","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-7198-016X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ioannis","family":"Papakyritsis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Speech & Language Therapy, University of Patras, 26504 Rio, Greece"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"147","DOI":"10.1080\/02646839308403210","article-title":"Newborn and fetal response to maternal voice","volume":"11","author":"Hepper","year":"1993","journal-title":"J. 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