Influence of music therapy in the understanding of spoken language in users of cochlear implant

Abstract

Background: The cochlear implant (CI) is one of the most important recent technological advances in healthcare. Even with this new technology, participants continue to have complaints regarding the performance of the CI. Auditory training is a procedure that provides the individual with performance improvements in auditory skills. One possible auditory training is music therapy. Objective: To verify the influence of music therapy on spoken language comprehension in participants who are post-lingual users of cochlear implants. Design and setting: The current research is a cross-sectional study. It was carried out in a university public institution, with a tertiary healthcare ranking. Method: Nine post-lingual implanted individuals participated in this study (average age: 52 years). These individuals had ten music therapy sessions, conducted once a week. The sentence comprehension test was used for hearing evaluation. All participants underwent a homework moment before the music therapy, and they were evaluated at three different times. Results: We observed significant improvement in understanding spoken sentences after music therapy. Conclusion: Music therapy was a useful tool for improving auditory and speech comprehension skills in post-lingual users of cochlear implants.