The major objective of the Phase II project is to provide a market-ready, computer-based training system to facilitate the development of speech perception skills in severely and profoundly hearing-impaired individuals who use hearing aids, vibrotactile aids, or cochlear implants. The two major objectives of Phase II are to further evaluate and develop the interactive computer training system. The system will be evaluated in Year 1 in homes of children and adults who use tactile aids or have cochlear implants. During Year 2, systems will be placed in a public school program and in a private school for the deaf for use with children with hearing aids, tactile aids and implants. Pre- and post-treatment speech perception tests will be administered to each subject to evaluate the effectiveness of training.
Specific aims are to quantify learning rates, establish a hierarchy of material and task difficulty and examine effectiveness of learning strategies within and outside of the computer training. An effective, reliable, user-friendly, adaptive system will serve a tremendous need for the increasing number of users of assistive devices. It will also serve as a useful research tool to investigate the perceptual learning strategies of deaf and hearing impaired persons. Its practical and commercial significance is considerable.
