Assessment and support of pupils with high effort in communicative activities

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20KK0285
• Research Category: Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (A))
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 09060:Special needs education-related
• Research Institution: Ibaraki University
• Principal Investigator: Tabaru Kei 茨城大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (70735753)
• Project Period (FY): 2022 – 2023
• Keywords: 雑音下聴取 / listening effort / コミュニケーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

During my one-year tenure as a visiting researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, a leader in auditory research, I explored the concept of listening effort (LE) in communicative activities. Prior research findings were often not transferable to pediatric populations, highlighting the necessity for a method to assess LE in children in natural and daily settings. To address this, I examined the potential of utilizing smart eyeglasses to objectively measure LE in children by monitoring blink rate variations during learning and communication tasks. Our investigation included fundamental experiments on blink rate fluctuations in response to auditory stimuli, such as noise, as well as applied research within educational or practical contexts.

Free Research Field

特別支援教育，教育オーディオロジー

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は，小児のListening effortを扱った研究は少なく，実験室での検討が困難であるという課題が指摘される中で，スマートアイグラスを使った計測を行い日常場面における評価の可能性を見出した。研究期間が短ったこともあり，基礎的検討までで終わったという課題は残るものの，これまで限界があるとされていたListening effortの新たな評価法について言及できたという点で，学術的・社会的な意義が高いと言える。本研究成果について，日本を中心にオンデマンド動画プログラムを通して広く公開したことで，国内においてListening effortの概念が広がった点も社会的な意義が高いと言える。