Browsing by Author "Pilli, Reea"

Tiivistelmä - Referat - Abstract Objectives. There is evidence on deficits in production and/or perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing impaired children. Previous research has shown that there might be beneficial effects of music and singing to perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing impaired children. Because good perception of word stress is linked to good language abilities, better perception of word stress may support language development in hearing-impaired children. Seemingly, there is no previous research on the development of production of word stress during music intervention in hearing impaired children. There is also a lack of studies comparing hearing impaired children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing-impaired children with hearing aids (HA) in their development of production and perception of word stress. The aim of this study was to examine how music intervention and singing at home are linked to the production and perception of word stress or its acoustic correlates in hearing-impaired children with bilateral cochlear implants (CI) and/or hearing aids (HA). This pilot study is a part of MULAPAPU research project which aims to study the effects of music and singing to perception and production of language in children aged from 0 to 7 years. Methods. The participating children (n=16) with bilateral CIs and/or HAs were aged from 2 to 7 years. They were grouped based on their hearing devices (children with bilateral CI and children with bilateral HAs or unilateral CI and contralateral HA). Other groups were made based on their signing at home (singers and non-singers). Non-word repetition-task invented in MULAPAPU research project was used to test the production of word stress. The perception of word stress and its acoustic correlates (pitch, intensity, duration) were assessed with previously used non-word /tata/-task. The children were tested before music intervention (T1) and after music intervention (T2). Results and conclusions. Only children with CIs improved in their production of word stress during music intervention. Overall, age was linked to the production of word stress but not the perception of word stress. Closer analysis showed a significant link between age and the development of production of word stress in hearing impaired children with HAs. Higher age was also linked to better development of perception of duration in children with CIs, and poorer development of perception of word stress in children with HAs. There were no significant differences between singers and non-singers in development of the production or the perception of word stress. However, more singers than non-singers improved their performance during music intervention. It seems that singing, and music intervention could be a valuable asset on rehabilitation of hearing-impaired children.