Music activities and responses of young cochlear implant recipients

Objective. The development of auditory receptive skills and spoken language is often delayed in children who use cochlear implants, which may affect their appreciation of and responses to music. This in turn may be interpreted as disinterest in music. A questionnaire was developed to determine whether differences in exposure and responses to music exist between young cochlear implant recipients and their normally hearing peers. Design. The questionnaire was developed by a multidisciplinary team and distributed to parents of preschool children with normal hearing and to parents of preschool children who had been implanted at least one year prior. Study sample. The cochlear implant group comprised 23 children and was gender and age matched (within ±2 months) to a group of children with normal hearing. Results & Conclusions. Young cochlear implant recipients receive similar exposure to audiovisual music media, parental singing and musical instruments at home. However, the data suggest that they receive less exposure to children's music presented without visual stimuli. Parents also reported less sophisticated responses to music for this group. The findings of this study have important implications concerning the provision of age-appropriate music habilitation materials and activities for young cochlear implant recipients.