The use of the Staggered Spondaic Word and the competing environmental sounds tests in the evaluation of central auditory function of learning disabled children.

Abstract

Children aged 6 to 12 years with intelligence and pure-tone hearing within the normal range (91 functioning academically within the middle 50% and having uneventful hearing health histories and 76 demonstrating learning disabilities) were evaluated with dichotic central auditory listening tasks. Auditory response patterns were established and analyzed for normal and learning disability-specific performance. Children with learning disability-specific performance. Children with learning disabilities performed more poorly than "normal" peers on verbal and nonverbal listening tasks, suggesting learning disabled children may be identified by auditory performance on dichotic listening skills.