Dichotic Listening in Children with Serious Language Problems

Abstract

20 children with serious language problems (mainly expressive) were tested with the Dichotic Listening (DL) test for language laterality. 16 were right-handed and 4 left-handed. The dichotic test consisted of series of pairwise presentations of CVC-syllables with “target-syllables” that should be detected interspersed among “distractors.” The child pointed to a sheet of paper on which a picture representing the targets (and distractors) was printed. In addition, the children were tested on several expressive and impressive language tests and on finger-tapping. Analysis showed an increased frequency of subjects with a left-ear advantage (LEA) and a reduced amplitude of the right-ear advantage (REA) for those subjects showing a right-ear advantage. Correlations with the language variables and with finger-tapping are presented and discussed.