Children With Specific Language Impairment: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Dichotic Listening Performance

Abstract

Specific language impairment (SLI) is one of the most common developmental disorders of higher cerebral function in children. This study was undertaken to examine the dichotic listening performance of children with SLI. Participants included 37 school-age children who underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation that included measures of cognitive ability, receptive and expressive language, visual-spatial perception-construction, immediate-working memory, and achievement and ratings of behavior-emotionality. In addition, each child was administered a free-recall consonant-vowel syllable dichotic listening task (30 pairs). Results indicated that, although the children with SLI exhibited a weak right-ear preference as a group, nearly 52% demonstrated a significant right-ear deficiency, whereas 29% exhibited left-ear deficiency and approximately 10% demonstrated bilateral-ear deficiency. The implication of these results is discussed with regard to their corresponding patterns of higher cortical dysfunction and their support for a qualitative differences model of SLI.