Music activities and responses of young cochlear implant recipients

Abstract

Abstract

Objective. The development of auditory receptive skills and spoken language is often delayed in children who use cochlear implants, which may affect their appreciation of and responses to music. This in turn may be interpreted as disinterest in music. A questionnaire was developed to determine whether differences in exposure and responses to music exist between young cochlear implant recipients and their normally hearing peers. Design. The questionnaire was developed by a multidisciplinary team and distributed to parents of preschool children with normal hearing and to parents of preschool children who had been implanted at least one year prior. Study sample. The cochlear implant group comprised 23 children and was gender and age matched (within ±2 months) to a group of children with normal hearing. Results & Conclusions. Young cochlear implant recipients receive similar exposure to audiovisual music media, parental singing and musical instruments at home. However, the data suggest that they receive less exposure to children's music presented without visual stimuli. Parents also reported less sophisticated responses to music for this group. The findings of this study have important implications concerning the provision of age-appropriate music habilitation materials and activities for young cochlear implant recipients.

Sumario

Objetivo. El desarrollo de habilidades para la recepción auditiva y para el lenguaje hablado, se retrasa frecuentemente en niños que usan implantes cocleares, lo que puede afectar su apreciación y sus respuestas hacia la música. Esto a su vez, puede ser interpretado como desinterés en la música. Se desarrolló un cuestionario para determinar si existen diferencias en la exposición y en las respuestas a la música entre usuarios pequeños de implante coclear y sus pares normo-oyentes. Diseño. Se desarrolló el cuestionario por un equipo multidisciplinario y se distribuyó a padres de preescolares normo-oyentes y a padres de preescolares implantados por lo menos un año antes. Muestra de estudio. El grupo de implantados fue de 23 niños, pareados por género y edad (rango de ±2 meses) con un grupo de niños normo-oyentes. Resultados y Conclusiones. Los niños implantados recibieron una exposición similar a la de la música por medios audiovisuales, al canto de los padres y a instrumentos musicales en el hogar. No obstante, los datos sugieren que fueron menos expuestos a la música para niños, presentada sin estímulos visuales. Los padres también reportaron respuestas menos sofisticadas a la música en este grupo. Los hallazgos de este estudio tienen importantes implicaciones que se relacionan con la provisión de materiales y actividades para la habilitación musical, apropiados para la edad, dirigidos a niños pequeños con implante coclear.

Key Words::

• Cochlear implant
• Children
• Music
• Activities
• Responses

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the parents who took part in this study, and staff at the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre, local playgroups, and nurseries who distributed questionnaires. We would like to acknowledge the contribution made to this study by Kirsty Carey, who assisted in the development and distribution of the questionnaire.

Portions of this work were presented at the 9th European Symposium on Paediatric Cochlear Implantation, Warsaw, Poland (2009), at the Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses, Lake Tahoe, USA (2009), and at the British Cochlear Implant Group Annual Conference, Southampton, UK (2010).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

(1) ‘CBeebies’ is a range of educational and entertainment television programmes aimed at children under the age of six, produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

(2) ‘Rhyme Time’, ‘Tuneful Tots’, and ‘Sing & Sign’ are names of local music playgroups for preschool children.

(3) ‘Non-pitched percussion instruments’ were defined as percussion instruments with an indefinite pitch (e.g. drum, cymbal and tambourine).