The perception of prosody and associated auditory cues in early-implanted children: The role of auditory working memory and musical activities

Abstract

Objective: To study prosodic perception in early-implanted children in relation to auditory discrimination, auditory working memory, and exposure to music. Design: Word and sentence stress perception, discrimination of fundamental frequency (F0), intensity and duration, and forward digit span were measured twice over approximately 16 months. Musical activities were assessed by questionnaire. Study sample: Twenty-one early-implanted and age-matched normal-hearing (NH) children (4–13 years). Results: Children with cochlear implants (CIs) exposed to music performed better than others in stress perception and F0 discrimination. Only this subgroup of implanted children improved with age in word stress perception, intensity discrimination, and improved over time in digit span. Prosodic perception, F0 discrimination and forward digit span in implanted children exposed to music was equivalent to the NH group, but other implanted children performed more poorly. For children with CIs, word stress perception was linked to digit span and intensity discrimination: sentence stress perception was additionally linked to F0 discrimination. Conclusions: Prosodic perception in children with CIs is linked to auditory working memory and aspects of auditory discrimination. Engagement in music was linked to better performance across a range of measures, suggesting that music is a valuable tool in the rehabilitation of implanted children.

Key Words::

• Cochlear implant
• prosody
• discrimination of F0
• duration and intensity
• auditory working memory
• musical activities

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. B.C.J. Moore, Dr. Stuart Rosen, the Lindfors Foundation (Eila Lonka and Helena Ahti), Christine Rocca and Catherine Bowker (Mary Hare School), Seija Laakso, Anita Forsblom, the personnel of Departments of Audiology in Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Kuopio University Hospitals (especially Sari Vikman, Nonna Virokannas, Satu Rimmanen, Teija Tsupari) and the Cognitive Brain Research Unit (Johannes Pykäläinen, Pirita Jernström, Eino Partanen, Paula Virtala, Miika Leminen, Tommi Makkonen) involved in this study, and most importantly, the parents and children for their participation.

Note

Declaration of interest: This work was supported by a grant to R.T. from the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation, the Finnish Concordia Fund, the Finnish Audiological Society, the Finnish doctoral programme in language studies, funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. For the remaining authors none were declared. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Notes

1. Raw scores were also used in Figure 2.