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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Entraînement auditif et musical chez l'enfant sourd profond : effets sur la perception auditive et effets de transferts

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This thesis focuses on the auditory training and auditory skill development of congenitally profoundly deaf children. It aims to evaluate, not only the effects of auditory training/auditory skill development on general auditory performances, but also the transfer effects on speech perception and development. An extended period of auditory deprivation leads to major difficulties in reception and speech production, cognitive difficulties, and also disrupts the maturation of central auditory pathways which limit the effects of hearing loss treatment in restoring sound transmission (cochlear implants or hearing aids). It is therefore necessary to teach children how to actively listen and to develop their auditory acuity. The first study of this thesis evaluates the auditory training/auditory skill development method entitled “Sound in Hand”, a recreational experimental program that allows stimulation of the general auditory processing skills, such as identification, discrimination, auditory scene analysis and auditory memory. The training program takes place over 16 weeks, on a weekly basis. The results are presented and discussed in the first four articles of the experimental section. They show that the training program “Sounds in Hand” enables profoundly deaf children to improve their auditory performances, in particular, the transfer effects to non-trained tasks (phonetic discrimination and speech development). Studies 2 and 3 of this thesis focus on the effects of musical training in congenitally profoundly deaf children. These studies are based on observations made in children with normal hearing which demonstrate that musical training not only result in finer auditory processing skills, but also has positive effects on cognition. In study 2, deaf children who have been taking music lessons for approximately four years, show better performances in phonetic discrimination than non-musician deaf children from the same special school. Thus, the scores of musician children seem comparable to those obtained with the “Sounds in Hand” training program in non-musician children (article 5). Finally, the third study of this thesis explores the effects of musical training on the perception of musical emotions and on implicit learning abilities. The results show that deaf musician children have more difficulties than non-musicians with normal hearing in identifying the different musical emotions (article 6). However, their implicit learning abilities are equivalent (article 7). Articles 8 and 9 represent a methodological and theorical contribution. In the general discussion, we consider the implications of these results on therapies in profoundly deaf children.