Improved Singing Accuracy in Children With Bilateral Hearing Devices With More Musical Activities and Better Verbal Fluency.

Only 18 children with hearing loss were studied, and device subgroups were too small for separate analysis. The hearing-loss group mixed bilateral cochlear implants, bilateral hearing aids, and bimodal devices, so device-specific effects could not be tested. The intervention was only about 10 weeks with weekly 45-minute sessions, and some sessions were remote and some face-to-face. The two intervention-order groups differed in duration of device use, age at first device, and age at diagnosis. Missing singing samples occurred because children under 7 could not be forced to sing. The links with informal music and verbal fluency are correlational and may be bidirectional. Children had to know and sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, which may have selected children with better singing skills. The normal-hearing group had higher parental education than the hearing-loss group. The study did not measure pitch perception, so singing errors could not be separated from perception or motor-planning problems.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The paper names the funder as Signe ja Ane Gyllenbergin Säätiö.

Do not conclude that the music intervention improves singing accuracy or that informal music causes better pitch. The primary comparison against normal-hearing children and the intervention versus waiting comparison were null, and the music and fluency links were correlational in a small study.