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How to develop musical hearing and voice at home: exercises for children

What do you need to know about musical hearing?

In everyday life, musical hearing is considered to be nothing more than a person’s ability to hear, remember and reproduce sounds correctly.

In fact, musical hearing refers to a range of abilities to which it refers:

• pure hearing;
• a sense of rhythm;
• a sense of rhythm, etc.

All of the above abilities can be both inborn and developed through numerous training sessions. It follows that the development of musical hearing in preschool children
Hearing development is a normal process that will help your child take music to the next level with regard to perception and playback.

It is a good idea to involve children in hearing development activities as early as pre-school, taking into account the fact that each child has a different degree of receptivity to these lessons.

Musical abilities, including musical hearing, each person manifests themselves in due time, but most often the active development of musical hearing and other musical abilities is typical for children at an early age, which once again confirms the example of famous personalities – composers and musicians, striking their skills and talents of others from early childhood.

The urgency of hearing loss in children
According to WHO, nearly 32 million children around the world have hearing problems that lead to disability. That is, five in a thousand children are born deaf or lose their hearing after birth.

60 percent of hearing loss in childhood can be avoided through preventative measures. This explains the strong public health interest in preventing hearing loss in children.

Reasons for hearing loss in children
First of all, mention should be made of the types of hearing impairment.

Highlighted:

A conductive hearing loss caused by an impaired sound conduction to the inner ear. This type of impairment is caused by conditions in the outer ear and middle ear. Conductive hearing loss is most often moderate to mild and can be corrected quite easily;
Sensorineural hearing loss results from damage to the inner ear or auditory nerve structures. Treatment options include middle ear implants or cochlear implants;
A mixed hearing loss type combines conductive and sensorineural hearing loss. Read more here https://argoprep.com/blog/learning-styles-series-the-auditory-learner/
The causes of hearing loss are divided into congenital and acquired hearing loss. Congenital hearing loss is caused in half of the cases by genetic diseases inherited from parents. A parent can be a healthy carrier of the mutation or suffer from the same condition.

Genetic hearing loss has one type of inheritance:

Autosomal recessive type. This type of inheritance includes 70% of all genetic mutations associated with hearing loss or hearing loss. Parents of a child with such a condition are outwardly absolutely healthy, but there is a mutation in their genome which manifests itself only if both parents have it.
Autosomal dominant type. This type includes 15% of genetic hearing loss. One parent of such a child has no change in the genome, while the other either suffers from hearing impairment or has other disorders that characterize a specific genetic syndrome.
Spontaneous mutation. This group includes rare genetic disorders resulting from a spontaneous genetic mutation. Reasons of such mutations are only supposed and can arise in absolutely any developing organism at certain stages of intrauterine development.

In addition to genetic factors, there are many other factors that lead to congenital hearing loss:

Intrauterine infections such as herpes, rubella, toxoplasmosis, and DMV infection interfere with the formation of the embryo’s hearing organ, resulting in severe hearing loss at birth;
fetal hypoxia (lack of oxygen);
hemotransfusion (blood transfusions) in the mother during pregnancy;
diabetes mellitus in the mother;
administration during pregnancy of certain medications with ototoxic effect on the fetus: some antibiotics (groups of aminoglycosides, glycopeptides), some painkillers and anti-inflammatories (diclofenac sodium), tranquilizers and antidepressants, medicines for treatment of malignancies and tuberculosis. The prescription of these medicines is always a balanced and necessary decision. They are used only when the benefits to the mother significantly exceed the likelihood of complications in the fetus;
premature birth and the birth of a child weighing less than 1300g;
alcohol abuse, smoking and taking drugs during pregnancy.
Hearing loss in older children also has many possible causes. Temporary hearing loss is most often caused by ear infections, namely, middle otitis. The anatomical structure of the hearing organ in children is a factor in ear infections.

The child’s hearing tube is shorter and wider. This feature causes the rapid spread of inflammation from the oropharynx to the middle ear. The exudate accumulated in the drum cavity disrupts sound conduction and leads to a temporary decrease in hearing acuity in the child. This phenomenon often does not require special intervention, but only the treatment of a major infectious disease. However, frequent relapsing and chronic otitis can cause permanent hearing loss.

Factors of permanent hearing loss in children over a month old are:

Eardrum perforation due to injury or infection;
progressive otosclerosis, for example, in Meniere’s disease;
complications of certain infectious diseases such as measles, epidparotitis, pertussis and meningitis;
taking ototoxic medicines under 2 years of age;
severe brain injury;
chronic or recurrent otitis medication;
prolonged exposure to noise, resulting in a noisy hearing loss;
exposure to second-hand smoke.

How do you tell a child’s hearing loss?
Screening a newborn baby can detect only a small percentage of hearing loss in the child. The primary role in the diagnosis of hearing is played by the district paediatrician and the parents themselves.

So what does a child have to be able to do so that the doctor and parents do not have any doubts about their ability to perceive sounds?

0-4 months:

• to react to loud sounds;
• shudder in his sleep or wake up at a sudden loud sound;
• respond to another person’s voice positively (smile) or negatively (cry);
• calm down when you hear the voice of “your adult”.
• 4-9 months:

• smile in response to a parent’s address;
• watch the toys that make the sound;
• turn your head to the source of a familiar sound;
• turning the humming into a babbling noise;
• begins to understand the connection between gestures and speech.
• 9-15 months:

• responds to his name;
• tries to make or makes buzzing sounds;
• repeats simple sounds or words;
• understands and performs basic commands;
• uses his voice to attract attention.
• 15-24 months:

• Uses enough simple words to communicate;
• knows and shows body parts;
• knows the names of common objects (e.g.: house, cat, dog, earth, sky);
• takes an interest in music, poetry, reading;
• performs commands;
• points to objects that are called by an adult.
• Sometimes there are situations where a child who has no hearing problems and has developed normally before the age of 4-5 years has a sound impairment. And it is not always possible for the child to understand for himself and tell the adult about it.

There are several criteria by which it is possible to suspect hearing loss that has arisen in a child of preschool and school age.

There are difficulties in understanding other people’s speech;
Does not respond immediately to a name address or does not respond at all;
There are problems with speech;
Answers questions incorrectly (due to misunderstanding);
When watching TV, turns up the volume or sits very close to the screen;
Suddenly there are problems with learning;
Speech delay and/or articulation disorder;
Complaints of ear pain or tinnitus;
Has difficulty talking on the phone, often changes the ear to which the phone is applied;
Frequently asks around;
Very closely watches the facial expressions and lips of the speaker.