Musical stimulation proposal for hearing impaired children: case reports.

PURPOSE: To develop and to apply a musical stimulation program for children using Cochlear Implant.

METHOD: The research was conducted at the Educational Audiology Outpatient Clinic, UNIFESP, and was carried out in two stages - conception of the musical stimulation activities and its application in five children using Cochlear Implant, aged between 2 and 5 years, who had been under speech therapy for at least 12 months. The study group was submitted to six sessions of musical stimulation. We used three instruments to quantify the evolution of the child: Children's Musical Identification, Musical Skills Development and Musical Aptitude Test - all of them were designed by one of the authors.

RESULTS

Musical stimulation had a positive effect, thereby improving the rhythm and the melody skills of the participants. The children showed a performance over 50% in the tasks undertaken. Musical stimulation had a positive effect, thereby improving the rhythm (p=0.0267) and the melody (p=0.0445) skills of the participants.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that it is possible to develop a musical stimulation program that can be applied to children using Cochlear Implant inserted in aurioral rehabilitation, who benefit from the activities.