Music and auditory perceptual learning – cochlear implanted children trained six months inside a musical bells and melody chimes orchestra

Abstract

The purpose of the study. To directly improve the capacity to discriminate musical sound’s parameters by the cochlear implanted children who participated in the designed trai­ning activity. Also, speech recognition in difficult sound envi­ron­ments is indirectly improved. Materials and method. The experimental study was organized as an or­ches­tra of musical bells and melody chimes. The group was represented by 20 cochlear implanted children aged 4 to 17 years old. They participated 6 months for orchestra trai­ning. The capacity of all the subjects to discriminate the rhythm, tonality and timbre of the musical sounds was tes­ted before starting the rehabilitative activity and after six months of musical training. Results. After six months of musical training, all the children showed significant im­proved capabilities of discrimination of sound parameters com­pa­ring with the initial testing results. Conclusions. Musical trai­ning for cochlear implanted children can contribute to an increased music enjoyment and quality of life for this ca­te­go­ry of patients, by providing better discriminatory skills re­gar­ding musical parameters.