Music perception training for pediatric cochlear implant recipients ages 3 to 5 years: A pilot study

Abstract

This study examined the potential effectiveness of music perception training program for pediatric cochlear implant recipients. A pilot study was conducted with six young CI recipients with a mean age of 4.4 years to investigate the applicability of the systematic training program targeting discrimination and identification of rhythm, pitch, and timbre, and singing skills. Participants received a total of 24 training sessions and their music perception task performance on seven subtests was measured before and after the program. The results showed that task performance rates of participants increased for all subtests, with significant improvement in rhythm discrimination and identification. This indicates that this structured training could be applied to this population in order to facilitate them to effectively process temporal and spectral features of music. © the American Music Therapy Association 2016. All rights reserved.