App review: Advanced Bionics BabyBeats™

The BabyBeats™ app stimulates your baby’s senses through musical activities. It can be beneficial for children with a range of hearing devices. Using the app with a vibrating speaker can make it more relevant for profoundly deaf children. This reviewer uses the Damson Cisor wireless vibration speaker.

Available free on iOS and Android via the Advanced Bionics website.

Ages: 0 to 4

Review

Charlie

Reviewed by Tom, dad to Charlie (2) who is profoundly deaf and wears cochlear implants.

"Charlie was diagnosed as profoundly deaf when he was eight weeks old. He now has cochlear implants but we wanted him to fully embrace his other senses pre-implantation.

When we attended our first local group for deaf children, we had fun joining in with the sing and sign activities. Our Teacher of the Deaf ran the singing sessions and she introduced us to the BabyBeats Advanced Bionics CD. At the group, they played the CD through a vibration speaker which they made more accessible for all the children by placing it in an empty plastic bin. The vibration through the bin was so powerful and varied that our son could enjoy music for the first time.

When we got home, we invested in our own vibration speaker, the Damson Cisor. We registered online with Advanced Bionics and received the BabyBeats pack, which included flash cards, a CD and a rubber duck. The music is also available on an app which we downloaded to use with the Damson Cisor. It’s powerful and our son loved feeling the vibrations while sat in his high chair. Along with the flash cards, Charlie got to enjoy the music and learnt to anticipate our actions from the vibrations played through the speaker by the BabyBeats app. Charlie has always been interested in facial and visual cues but the app and vibration speaker combined really awoke his sense of touch and helped us connect more as a family."