Attention and laterality preferences in children who clutter

Abstract

Children who clutter were compared to children who stutter and children who did not stutter on a synthetically generated dichotic consonant-vowel listening task and a timed response assessment task of attention. The Dichotic Listening Test consisted of 120 pairs of synthetically generated stop consonants. Subjects used a pointing response and tasks involved three listening conditions (free recall, directed left, directed right). The Conners’ Continuous Performance Test was used to obtain an overall attentional index score, number of correct responses, percentage of omissions, percentage of commissions, hit reaction time, and beta and sensitivity scores. Results revealed that during the directed right and directed left listening tasks children who cluttered and control subjects showed right and left ear advantages. Children who stuttered demonstrated mixed laterality on the DLT. It appeared that children who cluttered benefitted directly from a task which directed their attention to a specific ear. Results of the Continuous Performance Test supported this hypothesis. Children who cluttered showed poorer performance on the overall attentional index as well as a number of the subscores than children who stuttered and children who did not stutter. Implications for future research will be discussed.