A New Study Found That Long-Term Music Training May Improve Auditory Skills In Children With Hearing Loss
For every one thousand babies born in the United States, three suffer from hearing loss.
According to Boston Children’s Hospital, this hearing loss can affect either just one ear or both. Additionally, the loss can range from mild to profound.
Mild hearing loss might include having trouble detecting softer sounds, while moderate hearing loss prohibits children from following conversations in the presence of background noise.
Severe hearing loss is diagnosed when children cannot hear loud voices, and profound hearing loss, unfortunately, occurs when children are unable to hear most noises.
While hearing loss affects people of all ages, intervening in children’s loss of hearing as soon as possible is especially pertinent. According to the CDC, “Hearing loss can affect a child’s ability to develop speech, language, and social skills.”
Moreover, the CDC recommends that babies diagnosed with hearing loss receive an intervention plan “no later than six months of age.”
There are various technology-based hearing loss solutions with high success rates– including hearing aids, cochlear implants, and bone-anchored hearing aids. But, listening via these devices is still different from hearing without assistance.
Interestingly, long-term music therapy has been growing in popularity among the hearing community for its ability to enhance auditory skills.
So, a new research study published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research has investigated the potential perceptual benefits of using music training among children with hearing loss.
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The researchers first gathered fourteen children between the ages of six and nine. Each child was diagnosed with prelingual sensorineural hearing loss and used bilateral hearing aids, bilateral cochlear implants, or a bimodal configuration.
Then, the children took part in a twelve-week music training program. Each week, the children participated in weekly music group therapy. They also worked on take-home music assignments three times every week.
The researchers tested for improvement among hearing-impaired children in various areas– including music appreciation, music perception, and speech perception.
The study found that “after music training, perception of speech-in-noise, question/statement prosody, musical timbre, and spectral resolution improved significantly– as did measures of music appreciation.”
These newfound benefits of music therapy may have vast implications among the atypical-hearing community.
“This suggests even a modest amount of music training has benefits for music and speech outcomes and provides further evidence that music training is a suitable complementary means of habilitation to improve the outcomes for children with hearing loss,” the researchers concluded.
To read the complete scientific findings, visit the link here.
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