Abstract
This study focused on the role of dichotic listening performance for the identification of reading impaired subtypes. Dichotic listening (DL), using verbal stimuli, has shown to be a valid measure of language lateralization. Usually, lateralization is estimated from the proportion of right ear over left ear accuracy during a free recall test procedure. However, it has been suggested that a more accurate estimate of laterality can be obtained by using a directed attention procedure. A sample of 43 reading disabled children of whom 18 showed signs of impaired language comprehension skills and 25 without language comprehension impairments, were compared to 20 age, and gender, matched controls on dichotic listening performance in both an unbiased free recall task and in a directed attention task using consonant-vowel syllables as dichotic stimuli. A laterality index was calculated for left and right ear stimuli reported during both the free recall condition and the attended ear-scores for the two directed attention conditions. Although both DL procedures yielded significant group differences, with a lower laterality score for the reading disabled compared to the controls, there was no main effect of DL-procedure or group × procedure interaction. Taken alone, DL performance could correctly classify 42% of the reading impaired samples, but together with other measures of executive functions, discriminant function analyses yielded 90.74% accuracy in classifying reading impaired children. The result indicates that DL together with tests of executive functions are valuable tools for assessment of reading impaired subjects.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.