ERIC Number: EJ1059951
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Apr
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1092-4388
EISSN: N/A
Environmental Sound Training in Cochlear Implant Users
Shafiro, Valeriy; Sheft, Stanley; Kuvadia, Sejal; Gygi, Brian
Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v58 n2 p509-519 Apr 2015
Purpose: The study investigated the effect of a short computer-based environmental sound training regimen on the perception of environmental sounds and speech in experienced cochlear implant (CI) patients. Method: Fourteen CI patients with the average of 5 years of CI experience participated. The protocol consisted of 2 pretests, 1 week apart, followed by 4 environmental sound training sessions conducted on separate days in 1 week, and concluded with 2 posttest sessions, separated by another week without training. Each testing session included an environmental sound test, which consisted of 40 familiar everyday sounds, each represented by 4 different tokens, as well as the Consonant Nucleus Consonant (CNC) word test, and Revised Speech Perception in Noise (SPIN-R) sentence test. Results: Environmental sounds scores were lower than for either of the speech tests. Following training, there was a significant average improvement of 15.8 points in environmental sound perception, which persisted 1 week later after training was discontinued. No significant improvements were observed for either speech test. Conclusions: The findings demonstrate that environmental sound perception, which remains problematic even for experienced CI patients, can be improved with a home-based computer training regimen. Such computer-based training may thus provide an effective low-cost approach to rehabilitation for CI users, and potentially, other hearing impaired populations.
Descriptors: Acoustics, Auditory Stimuli, Speech Impairments, Surgery, Assistive Technology, Deafness, Hearing Impairments, Patients, Pretests Posttests, Training, Speech Language Pathology, Familiarity, Environment, Program Effectiveness, Auditory Perception, Computer Assisted Instruction
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. Tel: 800-638-8255; Fax: 301-571-0457; e-mail: subscribe@asha.org; Web site: http://jslhr.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: DC008676