Graeme Clark Collection
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ItemDesign fundamentals for electrotactile devices: the Tickle Talker case study(Whurr, 1995)Since the work of Gault in the 1920s, the literature has chronicled the development of numerous tactile devices for use by the hearing impaired in improving communication. Devices have been developed to target improvements in both speech perception and speech production. In each development, the inventors have attempted to encode speech information through stimulation of the intact kinaesthetic system of the individual, as a supplement or replacement for speech input available from the damaged auditory pathway.
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ItemResearch in auditory training(Academy of Rehabilitative Audiology, 1994)Speech perception and communication can improve as a result of experience, and auditory training is one way of providing experiences that may be beneficial. One of the most important factors influencing the effectiveness of auditory training is the amount of experience the client already has. Other factors include the severity of the hearing loss, the sensory device used, the environment, personal qualities of the client and clinician, the type of training, and the type of evaluation used. Despite a long history of clinical practice, the effects of these factors have been investigated in few controlled studies. Even in special cases where training has an obvious role, such as adults using cochlear implants, there has been little objective comparison of alternative training methods. One reason for this is the difficulty of carrying out definitive experiments that measure changes in performance over time in the presence of many confounding variables. These variables may also help to explain the apparently contradictory results that can be found in the literature on auditory training and in the diverse points of view expressed by practicing clinicians. Issues and methods appropriate for research in auditory training among adult clients are discussed with reference to the needs of modem clinical practice.
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ItemHabilitation issues in the management of children using the cochlear multiple-channel cochlear prosthesis(Wien, 1994)Since 1985, a significant proportion of patients seen in the Melbourne cochlear implant clinic have been children. The children represent a diverse population, with both congenital and acquired hearing-impairments, a wide-range of hearing levels pre-implant, and an age range from 2 years to 18 years. The habilitation programme developed for the overall group must be flexible enough to be tailored to the individual needs of each child, and to adapt to the changing needs of children as they progress. Long-term data shows that children are continuing to show improvements after 5-7 years of device use, particularly in their perception of open-set words and sentences. Habilitation programs must therefore be geared to the long-term needs of children and their families. Both speech perception and speech production need to be addressed in the specific content of the habilitation program for any individual child. In addition, for young children, the benefits of improved speech perception should have an impact on development of speech and language, and the focus of the programme for this age child will reflect this difference in emphasis. Specific materials and approaches will vary for very young children, school-age and teenage children. In addition, educational setting will have a bearing on the integration of listening and device use into the classroom environment.
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ItemSpeech processing for cochlear implants(JAI Press Ltd, 1992)The cochlear implant is a hearing prosthesis designed to replace the function of the ear. The operation of the prosthesis can be described as a sequence of four functions: the processing of the acoustic signal received by a microphone; the transfer of the processed signal through the skin; the creation of neural activity in the auditory nerve; and the integration of the experience of this neural activity into the perceptual and cognitive processing of the implantee.
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ItemComparison of current speech coding strategies( 1993)This paper reports on two studies carried out at the University of Melbourne jointly with Cochlear Pty Ltd. The studies demonstrated substantial speech perception improvements over the current Multipeak strategy in background noise.
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ItemPattern recognition and masking in cochlear implant patients(Elsevier Science Publishers, 1993)Studies of the temporal course of masking using pulsatile electrical stimulation provide a sensitive new technique for the investigation of central pattern recognition. The masked threshold for a single-pulse probe was studied for several different maskers as a function of the time between the probe and the start of the masker. These experiments showed the gradual development of a temporal pattern in the masked thresholds as the number of pulses in the masker was increased. For a 210 msec masker with pulses at 10 msec intervals, both backward and forward masking thresholds showed a well-defined peak at times 10 msec before and after the masker. Probe pulses presented at these times were probably perceived to be part of the masker pattern and therefore were not easily identified as probe pulses. This conclusion was confirmed by using a masker with pulses at 20 msec intervals. Only backward masking was tested, and the results showed a peak approximately 20 msec before the start of the masker, fitting in with the temporal pattern of the masker.
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ItemThe potential benefit and cost-effectiveness of tactile devices in comparison with cochlear implants(Whurr, 1993)The use of the word 'potential' in the title of this chapter implies that the discussion must be somewhat speculative in attempting to foresee the benefits and costs of cochlear implants in the future. It is now much easier to do this than it would have been five or ten years ago, although there still remain many unanswered questions about their use, especially for hearing-impaired children. As far as possible, the assumptions and opinions expressed in this chapter are based on fact but in some cases reflect the subjective bias of the authors. (These opinions are not necessarily shared by other contributors to this book.) In particular, one author (PJB) has been involved in cochlear implant research for over ten years and began developing a tactile device in 1984 as a control device in studies of cochlear implants in children. Children and adults using this device have produced results comparable to those for some groups of cochlear implant patients. Despite these results, which exceeded initial expectations, there is still some bias in favour of the cochlear implant.