Sensory room: Naturalistic assessment of auditory and visual perception in developing children

Hearing is essential for language acquisition and understanding the environment. Understanding how children react to auditory and visual information is essential for appropriate management in case of hearing loss. Objective and subjective assessments can diagnose hearing loss, but do not measure natural perception in children. We developed a "sensory room" for complementary assessment of children's perceptions so as to assess behavioral responses to meaningful natural sounds and visual stimuli in an ecologic environment suited to children.

Sixteen normal-hearing children and 10 with congenital hearing loss before cochlear implantation, aged 13 to 32months, were included in this feasibility study. They perceived 18 environmental sounds and 9 visual stimuli, and their behavioral responses were coded accordingly as: stopping, looking, moving, pointing, language or emotional reactions.

All children completed the task, demonstrating its feasibility in children. Percentage responses to auditory versus visual stimuli did not differ in normal-hearing children; those with congenital hearing loss responded like normal-hearing children to visual stimuli, but did not react to auditory stimuli. Progression in normal-hearing children's behavioral responses corresponded to cognitive and linguistic development according to age.

The "sensory room" quantified children's responses to various auditory and visual stimuli, providing clinicians with measurable insight into the children's sensory perception and processing.