Computer-based music training with hearing impairments: Lessons from an experiment

From experience of teaching students with deafness or hearing impairments, we know that they both like music-related activities and want to listen to music by themselves. The individual preferences for listening among our students are however not directly related to their hearing acuity as measured by audiograms, nor can their enthusiasm for musicrelated activities be explained from hearing acuity alone. In order to support listening, to help improving hearing abilities, and to better their understanding and enjoyment of music, we have tested a previously developed music game for a set time period of four weeks as a training facility. To evaluate the training, a hearing capability assessment test was employed. In this paper, we describe our preliminary training trial and the current problems of music training for deaf and hard of hearing people