Music Training for Children With Sensorineural Hearing Loss Improves Speech-in-Noise Perception

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Abstract

Purpose

A growing body of evidence suggests that long-term music training provides benefits to auditory abilities for typical-hearing adults and children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how music training may provide perceptual benefits (such as speech-in-noise, spectral resolution, and prosody) for children with hearing loss.

Method

Fourteen children aged 6–9 years with prelingual sensorineural hearing loss using bilateral cochlear implants, bilateral hearing aids, or bimodal configuration participated in a 12-week music training program, with nine participants completing the full testing requirements of the music training. Activities included weekly group-based music therapy and take-home music apps three times a week. The design was a pseudorandomized, longitudinal study (half the cohort was wait-listed, initially serving as a passive control group prior to music training). The test battery consisted of tasks related to music perception, music appreciation, and speech perception. As a comparison, 16 age-matched children with typical hearing also completed this test battery, but without participation in the music training.

Results

There were no changes for any outcomes for the passive control group. After music training, perception of speech-in-noise, question/statement prosody, musical timbre, and spectral resolution improved significantly, as did measures of music appreciation. There were no benefits for emotional prosody or pitch perception.

Conclusion

The findings suggest even a modest amount of music training has benefits for music and speech outcomes. These preliminary results provide further evidence that music training is a suitable complementary means of habilitation to improve the outcomes for children with hearing loss.

Abstract

Related collections

Most cited references 4

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Timbral recognition and appraisal by adult cochlear implant users and normal-hearing adults.

G Woodworth, Campbell Witt, K Gfeller … (1998)

The purpose of this study was to examine the appraisal and recognition of timbre (four different musical instruments) by recipients of Clarion cochlear implants (CIS strategy, 75- or 150-microsec pulse widths) and to compare their performance with that of normal-hearing listeners. Twenty-eight Clarion cochlear implant users and 41 normal-hearing listeners were asked to give a subjective assessment of the pleasantness of each instrument using a visual analog scale with anchors of "like very much" to "dislike very much," and to match each sound with a picture of the instrument they believed had produced it. No significant differences were found between the two different pulse widths for either appreciation or recognition; thus, data from the two pulse widths following 12 months of Clarion implant use were collapsed for further analyses. Significant differences in appraisal were found between normal-hearing listeners and implant recipients for two of the four instruments sampled. Normal-hearing adults were able to recognize all of the instruments with significantly greater accuracy than implant recipients. Performance on timbre perception tasks was correlated with speech perception and cognitive tasks.