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The sidebar "Music With a Cochlear Implant" in the April 29 issue of The ASHA Leader was excellent, as was the article by Gfeller and Knutson ("Music to the Impaired or Implanted Ear").
The author's cochlear implant experience with music is that of the trained observer reporting from the inside. What the sidebar exemplifies is what all the helping professions need—the inside view. We need to know that perspective in order to learn many aspects of what works, what doesn't work, and what can be done.
In my practice, I was often delighted when a patient told me of success with a hearing aid, which my professional dogma had placed outside of my expectations. Of course, we learn from our patients, but few are as articulate.
In 1969, I was introduced to ultrasound being used by obstetricians as an acoustical probe. That unique experience clearly beat listening for the infant heart with a stethoscope. Knowing that the fetus responds to acoustic stimuli at least as early as the fifth month of gestation, Lee Salk had already established that maternal heart-sound was a familiar stimulus to the newborn. This somatic sense of rhythm can be reinforced postpartum.
I am especially able to appreciate the importance of rhythm as a vital part of the pattern perception that underlies speech recognition. To my knowledge, nobody has done any formal research on the importance of placental ballistics to our rhythm sense. As a matter of fact, it is rather surprising, considering the popularity of rock music.
Marlin (Spike) Werner,
Hilo, HI
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