Although a growing literature points to substantial variation in speech/language abilities related to individual differences in musical abilities, mainstream models of communication sciences and disorders have not yet incorporated these individual differences into childhood speech/language development. This article reviews three sources of evidence in a comprehensive body of research aligning with three main themes: (a) associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, (b) musical rhythm in children with developmental speech/language disorders and common comorbid attentional and motor disorders, and (c) individual differences in mechanisms underlying rhythm processing in infants and their relationship with later speech/language development. In light of converging evidence on associations between musical rhythm and speech/language processing, we propose the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis, which posits that individuals with atypical rhythm are at higher risk for developmental speech/language disorders. The hypothesis is framed within the larger epidemiological literature in which recent methodological advances allow for large‐scale testing of shared underlying biology across clinically distinct disorders. A series of predictions for future work testing the Atypical Rhythm Risk Hypothesis are outlined. We suggest that if a significant body of evidence is found to support this hypothesis, we can envision new risk factor models that incorporate atypical rhythm to predict the risk of developing speech/language disorders. Given the high prevalence of speech/language disorders in the population and the negative long‐term social and economic consequences of gaps in identifying children at‐risk, these new lines of research could potentially positively impact access to early identification and treatment.

中文翻译：

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非典型节律是发展性言语和语言障碍的危险因素吗？

尽管越来越多的文献指出与音乐能力的个体差异相关的语音/语言能力存在很大差异，但传播科学和障碍的主流模型尚未将这些个体差异纳入儿童语音/语言发展。本文回顾了与三个主题一致的综合研究中的三个证据来源：(a) 音乐节奏与言语/语言处理之间的关联，(b) 患有发育性言语/语言障碍和常见并存的注意力和注意力不集中的儿童的音乐节奏。运动障碍，和（c）婴儿节律处理机制的个体差异及其与后来的言语/语言发展的关系。鉴于有关音乐节奏与语音/语言处理之间关联的综合证据，我们提出了非典型节奏风险假设，该假设假设具有非典型节奏的个体患发育性语音/语言障碍的风险更高。该假设是在更大的流行病学文献中构建的，其中最近的方法学进展允许对临床不同疾病的共享潜在生物学进行大规模测试。概述了对未来工作测试非典型节律风险假设的一系列预测。我们建议，如果发现大量证据支持这一假设，我们可以设想新的风险因素模型，结合非典型节奏来预测发展语言/语言障碍的风险。