Results of Auditory Training for Blind and Visually Handicapped Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Results of an auditory training for blind/visually impaired children and teenagers are presented. A measure of the training eectiveness is the dierence between the results of a pre-and post-training verication test. Two age groups of visually handicapped young persons were tested: 712 years old and 1419 years old. It was shown that the training may be beneciary for blind or visually impaired children and teenagers, especially in tasks related to localization of moving sound sources. No dierences in training results were found between age groups. The results of trained groups were compared to those obtained for not trained control groups of young blind individuals.

Comparison of Effects of Auditory and Music Training of Blind or Visually Impaired Young People on Performance in Selected Auditory Tasks

“…In our previous papers we have presented a detailed concept of and physical parameters of signals used in our auditory or acoustic training (AT) [19], based on artificial sounds [19][20][21] and its effects on auditory competences of children and adolescents with visual problems [21]. Such training may also be beneficial for the orientation and mobility training of visually handicapped individuals [22].…”

“…The task of the subject was to answer a question after each presented piece of acoustic material. Each subject took part in twenty training sessions lasting 40 minutes each [21]. The auditory training took 4-5 weeks, and its duration did not differ significantly from training duration times reported previously [15][16].…”

“…Sounds were presented on comfortable listening level. Both training types were carried out with young persons because they are a promising and potentially the most beneficiary group of the blind [14,21].…”

“…The test apparatus and commands were the same as those used in the auditory training. The verification test took 45 minutes [21]. Physical parameters of the verification test tasks are as follows (task; stimuli; parameters; subject): (f 0 = 294 Hz, 3f 0 , 4f 0 , 5f 0 ) -low pitch, dark timbre, (f 0 = 294 Hz, 4f 0 , 5f 0 , 6f 0 ) -low pitch, bright timbre, (f 0 = 471 Hz, 3f 0 , 4f 0 , 5f 0 ) -high pitch, dark timbre, (f 0 = 471 Hz, 4f 0 , 5f 0 , 6f 0 )high pitch, bright timbre, signal duration and the interval between signals -300 ms; point out the difference in the pair (in pitch or timbre only, both in timbre and pitch).…”

Multimodal Perceptual Training for Improving Spatial Auditory Performance in Blind and Sighted Listeners

“…Other experiments test the pitch discrimination and pitch-timbre categorisation abilities (Bogusz et al, 2012a), pitch memorisation skills (Bogusz et al, 2012b), or discuss the results of auditory training for blind and visually impaired children and teenagers (Bogusz-Witczak et al, 2015). Moreover, other research studied the effect of 3D sound recording and reproduction methods on performance in sound localisation by normally sighted and visually impaired subjects (Furmann et al, 2013).…”