Sensory deprivation has lasting repercussions on brain development and behavioral outcomes.1,2 In children with hearing loss, deprivation is negatively correlated with neural development,2 as well as perceptual, linguistic and cognitive abilities.1,3–5 As the development and organization of cortical auditory pathways critically depends on sensory experience.6,7 the restoration of auditory function with amplification devices is insufficient for children to hear correctly. Deaf children should learn to interpret auditory signals to create meaningful representations of sound and listening strategies.8

Access to speech perception is possible through the digital technology of sound amplification devices such as Hearing Aids (HA) and Cochlear Implant (CI). In Brazil, the acquisition of these resources can be performed in Hearing Health Services accredited by the Unified Health System. The basic function of these devices is to amplify the sound to maximize the speech spectrum available to the user, to improve speech audibility. One of the intended effects is to improve the development of speech and language.9

The link between language and music skills, and their overlapping processes, is of great interest. Music and language have common characteristics: both systems are composed of discrete elements (phonemes and notes), organized in temporal and hierarchical structures (words and chords), depend on the auditory processing of complex acoustic elements, and transmit rich meanings.10 Studies have shown a great overlap in the brain regions involved in the processing of music and language at cortical levels11,12 and subcortical.13 These similarities, both in processes and in brain networks, can subjugate the effects of transferring from one domain to another in the normal population. Thus, training with one type of material (e.g., music) should improve its efficiency to process other types of stimuli, such as language.14,15

However, the perception of music is unsatisfactory for users of sound amplification devices; music plays a fundamental role in the establishment of communicative abilities, since it is a powerful tool for transmitting emotion, identifying emotional clues and is an important part of human social and communication development.16

Music comprises numerous harmonics that vary in frequency over a wide range; musical melodies, even with a single instrument, are composed of a series of complex tones.17 Our perception of music is therefore influenced by the way the auditory system encodes and retains acoustic information.18

One of the salient features of sound relevant to music is tom.19 Besides the tone or the melody, the music depends on the rhythm. Behavioral studies demonstrate that rhythm and tone can be perceived separately,20 but that they also interact21 in creating a musical perception.

Currently, CI users and, to a certain extent, HA users, struggle with complex auditory perceptual tasks, particularly those requiring perceptual tuning22 and melodic contour.23 According to a recent study24 a standardized and accurate assessment of musical perception skills would offer new opportunities to investigate nonverbal auditory abilities such as timbre, rhythm, and melodic contour.

Several tests were designed for the musical perception test in CI users, including batteries such as the Primary Measures in Musical Audience, Music Excerpt Recognition Test, and Percussion Drum and Musical Assessment of Iowa.25–27 Many of these tests, while providing important information on various aspects of musical perception, require hours to complete, require the assistance of trained personnel and would be difficult to administer in a typical clinical environment. Studies at various institutions use different melodies in their recognition tasks, and the same melody can be presented in varying ways, from the use of different instruments and pitch registers to the use of simple melodic lines and actual recordings. Many of these recordings contain rhythmic clues that can contribute to melody recognition.28,29 Researchers30 demonstrated that CI users performed significantly better on familiar melody recognition tasks when rhythmic cues were available. The lack of standardization in the test of musical perception also impedes the ability to compare the results of patients in different institutions.

The audiology practice guide31 states that assessments of amplification devices should be performed to verify the child's performance in auditory tasks with the use of them by means of speech-in-noise test and measurements with probe microphone, however in relation to music, there is no Brazilian test that evaluates the musical recognition of HA/CI users.

The hypothesis of the study is that this application can be used to perform the evaluation of the amplification devices, being an instrument of easy application.

The objective of the study was the development and validation of an instrument to evaluate the recognition of melodies in school children with normal hearing.

The research initiated after approval of the Ethics Committee in Research (n° 46839315.7.0000.5417). According to the ethical precepts of research with human beings, the participants and those responsible were clarified about the fundamentals, objectives and procedures of the research, as well as about the benefits and absence of health risk and about the confidentiality related to the data obtained.

The transversal, descriptive and observational research was developed in two stages: creation and validation of the instrument.

A total of 155 children participated in the study, 49% female and 51% male.

The distribution by age group is shown in Table 1. According to the proposed objective, the instrument “Evaluation of the Recognition of Traditional Melodies in Children” was developed. Fig. 1(A–C) illustrates the software access screen, the evaluation screen composed of the images corresponding to the melodies and the results screen, respectively. The instrument application can be accessed: http://srv60.teste.website/∼ivan/home/login.php, with login and password.

Figure 1.

Instrument start screen (A), Evaluation screen (B) and Response screen (C).

(0.41MB).

The most easily recognized melodie was “Cai, cai balão” (89%) and the least recognized was “Capelinha de melão” (25.2%). The frequency distribution of errors and correctness for the total sampled children is shown in Table 2.

According to the percentage of recognition, the melodies were thus ordered (highest to lowest): “Caranguejo”, “Boi da cara preta”, “O cravo”, “Escravos de Jó”, “Parabéns a você”, “Marcha soldado”, “Bate o sino”, “Sambalelê”, “Atirei o pau no gato”, “Nana nenê”, “Noite feliz”, “Brilha, brilha estrelinha” e “Ciranda, cirandinha”.

Table 3 shows the distribution and correlation of errors and correctness in each song according to age.

The mean time to perform the test was 3′15″. Reaction time in each song in the total number of children sampled is shown in Table 4.

In view of the scarcity of instruments that evaluate the ability of musical recognition, it was observed the necessity of the elaboration of “Evaluation of Recognition of Traditional Melodies in Children”, to assist in the intervention process of children with hearing difficulties (Fig. 1(A–C)).

From the earliest childhood songs to the ever-present popular music of adolescence, music plays an important role in the lives of children. Because of the diffusion of music in all known cultures, children will experience it in a variety of ways daily.34

The instrument was performed by means of melodies generated in a piano, according to research carried out35 the performances of pianos provided less acoustic clues than the original recordings, however, when the complex signal is simplified and reduced to the melody reproduced in a piano synthesized, the ability to identify music as well as rating, decreases. In this way, the results indicate the positive value that children give to music, even in the face of limited musical information.36

According to the results obtained, it was possible to verify that “Cai, cai balão” was the melody most recognized by the children (Table 2), followed by “Boi da cara preta”, “Caranguejo”, “Escravos de Jó”, “O Cravo”, “Parabéns a você” and “Marcha Soldado”, with a recognition percentage superior to 70% of correct. The previous musical experience in children's music education classes may have been a contributing factor to the results obtained. Authors37 verified in a study with 5 year-old children, divided into two groups (with or without classes music), that the children enrolled in music classes performed better in a task of musical appreciation in relation to those who had no previous musical knowledge.

Melodies were selected for this study that were part of the musical repertoire observed in the daily life of the children during musicalization classes. It is possible to suggest that during the test application, the children could recognize the melody and not know the title of the same or recognize the melody with a title different from the one proposed in the test. A study38 was carried out that obtained the recognition of all students in 27 of the 285 Brazilian folk melodies selected for the study conducted with children from 5 to 12 years of age in the Course of Children Musicalization of the School of Music of the State University of Minas Gerais. The same author observed that during the process of collecting the songs and elaborating the test of recognition of melodies there was similarity between several songs, which in some cases presented identical melody, but different titles; in other cases, the same titles, with different versions. These difficulties found in the folk songbook were an obstacle for the children to identify the songs only by title. Besides the fact that the child could recognize the melody and not know the title of it.

Hypothetically, the observed difficulties38 may have been factors that also influenced the process of recognizing melodies of the present study. In another study39 with groups of 7 and 11 year-old children, it was found that the increase in the number of errors was inversely proportional to the decrease in reaction time for visual cues presented to children.

Concerning the correlation between the errors and correctness according to age (Table 3), a significant difference was observed only in the melodies “Noite feliz” (p<0.002) and “Parabéns a você” (p<0.019) also revealed that the 9 year-olds had a greater number of hits in relation to the perception of the songs.

The difference between the reception of the stimulus and the time each individual need to initiate a motor response is called “reaction time”.40 To determine the speed of motor responses, a measure based on the sum of two components has been used, a central one, called reaction time, and another peripheral, called “time of movement”.41 In relation to performance, the lower the reaction time, the greater the efficiency of the central mechanisms and processes.42

The reaction time for each melody in all the participants of the research was verified (Table 4), and through the analysis it was concluded that the song “Cai, cai balão” presented the lowest average in relation to the time factor 8.64s, then came the song “Caranguejo” with 8.75s, shortly after, “Marcha soldado” with 9.52s. The song with the longest reaction time on average was “Capelinha de melão” with 11.79s.

Coincidentally, the songs in which the children showed the shortest reaction time were those with greater recognition by the sample, in this way, it suggests that this result has influence due to the previous knowledge of these songs. This data agrees with reports43 that individuality in response time between individuals may be associated with environmental factors and experiences acquired during life.

In addition to being an instrument for the evaluation of sound amplification devices, the Evaluation of Recognition of Traditional Melodies in Children may be used in therapeutic musical training interventions to AID in improvements in neural time, processing speed, auditory work, auditory attention, speech-to-noise comprehension, and auditory scene analysis and cognition.44 In this way, research is being conducted with the “Evaluation of Recognition of Traditional Melodies in Children” with different objectives.

The development and application of the software proved effective for the studied population. This instrument may contribute to the improvement of protocols for the evaluation of musical perception in children with HA and/or CI users.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.