We are currently working on a project to research how children find sounds. To do this a fun game has been designed which involves playing sounds to children followed by lively cartoon animations, while observing where the children look and point.
The game uses a novel laboratory setup located in the anechoic chamber (AEC) at the Psychology Department of the University of Nottingham (see the picture on the right). When your child takes part in the study s/he helps us refine the game to make it more interactive, fun and enjoyable. The final game will provide an objective test method for the ability of young children to find sounds.
We investigate how children find sounds because this is a very important process which allows us to avoid traffic in a busy street or to focus our listening to one person in a noisy room. We hope that by understanding more about this skill we can improve treatments for hearing impaired individuals who lack this ability.
Please find further information about the study in this document (pdf, 215 kB) and about our general research here.
The parents and children who have taken part to date have been very positive about the experience as a whole. If you have a child between 1 and 2 years of age without hearing problems and you would like to help us, please fill out and send us this contact form, or contact Ms Carla Church or Dr Bernhard Seeber directly in one of the following ways:
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By postal mail:
- MRC Institute of Hearing Research
- Science Road, University Park
- Nottingham, NG7 2RD By email:
- Carla@ihr.mrc.ac.uk By phone:
- 0115 951 8508 ext 202