The Complementary Use Of Tactile Aids In Children With Severe To Profound Hearing Loss: A Study On The Transmission Of Temporal Cues

Abstract

Communication difficulties for the hearing impaired arise from damage to the auditory system. Since the auditory channei•c nnot convey all or particular parts of the speech signal, researchers and educators of the deaf have developed numerous systems and devices that attempt to exploit alternative sensory modalities to provide this missing speech infonnation

A vibrotactile aid, worn on the wrist, chest, abdomen, or arm, is an alternative way to receive infonnation about sound. Vibrotactile aids transform sound at moderate and loud intensity levels into vibrations that signal the wearer about the presence or absence of sound, changing in overall intensity with time. Aids with more than one channel filter incoming sound into multiple fr quency b.ands, and the amplitude of these bands is used to drive vibrators placed at different locations on the skin.