HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents
Cochlear implants (CI) enable hearing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss, albeit with difficulties in speech perception and sound localization. In noisy environments, these difficulties are disproportionately greater for CI users than for children with no reported hearing loss. Parents o...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-06-01
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Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2021.691984/full |
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doaj-48ba19e415b34e4187775d83062d10632021-06-16T04:40:37ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Virtual Reality2673-41922021-06-01210.3389/frvir.2021.691984691984HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their ParentsLasse EmbølCarl HuttersAndreas JunkerDaniel ReipurAli AdjorluRolf NordahlStefania SerafinCochlear implants (CI) enable hearing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss, albeit with difficulties in speech perception and sound localization. In noisy environments, these difficulties are disproportionately greater for CI users than for children with no reported hearing loss. Parents of children with CIs are motivated to experience what CIs sound like, but options to do so are limited. This study proposes using virtual reality to simulate having CIs in a school setting with two contrasting settings: a noisy playground and a quiet classroom. To investigate differences between hearing conditions, an evaluation utilized a between-subjects design with 15 parents (10 female, 5 male; age M = 38.5, SD = 6.6) of children with CIs with no reported hearing loss. In the virtual environment, a word recognition and sound localization test using an open-set speech corpus compared differences between simulated unilateral CI, simulated bilateral CI, and normal hearing conditions in both settings. Results of both tests indicate that noise influences word recognition more than it influences sound localization, but ultimately affects both. Furthermore, bilateral CIs are equally to or significantly beneficial over having a simulated unilateral CI in both tests. A follow-up qualitative evaluation showed that the simulation enabled users to achieve a better understanding of what it means to be an hearing impaired child.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2021.691984/fullvirtual realitycochlear implantssimulationempathyhearing loss |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Lasse Embøl Carl Hutters Andreas Junker Daniel Reipur Ali Adjorlu Rolf Nordahl Stefania Serafin |
spellingShingle |
Lasse Embøl Carl Hutters Andreas Junker Daniel Reipur Ali Adjorlu Rolf Nordahl Stefania Serafin HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents Frontiers in Virtual Reality virtual reality cochlear implants simulation empathy hearing loss |
author_facet |
Lasse Embøl Carl Hutters Andreas Junker Daniel Reipur Ali Adjorlu Rolf Nordahl Stefania Serafin |
author_sort |
Lasse Embøl |
title |
HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents |
title_short |
HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents |
title_full |
HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents |
title_fullStr |
HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents |
title_full_unstemmed |
HearMeVirtual Reality: Using Virtual Reality to Facilitate Empathy Between Hearing Impaired Children and Their Parents |
title_sort |
hearmevirtual reality: using virtual reality to facilitate empathy between hearing impaired children and their parents |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Virtual Reality |
issn |
2673-4192 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
Cochlear implants (CI) enable hearing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss, albeit with difficulties in speech perception and sound localization. In noisy environments, these difficulties are disproportionately greater for CI users than for children with no reported hearing loss. Parents of children with CIs are motivated to experience what CIs sound like, but options to do so are limited. This study proposes using virtual reality to simulate having CIs in a school setting with two contrasting settings: a noisy playground and a quiet classroom. To investigate differences between hearing conditions, an evaluation utilized a between-subjects design with 15 parents (10 female, 5 male; age M = 38.5, SD = 6.6) of children with CIs with no reported hearing loss. In the virtual environment, a word recognition and sound localization test using an open-set speech corpus compared differences between simulated unilateral CI, simulated bilateral CI, and normal hearing conditions in both settings. Results of both tests indicate that noise influences word recognition more than it influences sound localization, but ultimately affects both. Furthermore, bilateral CIs are equally to or significantly beneficial over having a simulated unilateral CI in both tests. A follow-up qualitative evaluation showed that the simulation enabled users to achieve a better understanding of what it means to be an hearing impaired child. |
topic |
virtual reality cochlear implants simulation empathy hearing loss |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frvir.2021.691984/full |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT lasseembøl hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT carlhutters hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT andreasjunker hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT danielreipur hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT aliadjorlu hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT rolfnordahl hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents AT stefaniaserafin hearmevirtualrealityusingvirtualrealitytofacilitateempathybetweenhearingimpairedchildrenandtheirparents |
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