Hidalgo, C. 1, 2 , Nguyen, N. 1 , Roman, S. 3, 2 , Falk, S. . 4, 5 & Schön, D. 2
1 Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL, Aix-en-Provence, France
2 Aix Marseille Univ, INSERM, INS, Inst Neurosci Syst, Marseille, France
3 AP-HM, service ORL Pédiatrique et Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, Hôpital d'Enfants de la Timone, Marseille, France
4 Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France
5 Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany
In spite of good language performances, recent research show that deaf children with Cochlear Implant (CI) or Hearing Aids (HA), suffer from communication and social difficulties. Musical rhythmic stimulation has been shown to facilitate speech rhythm perception in deaf children and to improve synchronization and cooperation between children with normal hearing during interactions. Rhythmic training seems to favor the development of temporal predictions that are essential during verbal exchanges and for a successful cooperation between conversational partners.
We present results of two experiments using a new paradigm assessing temporal prediction abilities of prelingually deaf children in conversational settings. We compare the effect of 30 minutes of rhythmic training versus 30 minutes of auditory training on temporal predictions skills. In a production task, children must name pictures in alternation with a virtual partner and in a perception task, children, equipped with an eye-tracker, watch dialogs between 2 actors. In both experiment we associate behavioral and electrophysiological measures.
Our results show a link between temporal predictive skills and conversational skills and most importantly a positive effect of rhythmic training on conversational abilities in deaf children.