Use of the dichotic listening technique with learning disabilities

Dichotic listening (DL) techniques have been used extensively as a non-invasive procedure to assess language lateralization among children with and without learning disabilities (LD), and with individuals who have other auditory system related brain disorders. Results of studies using DL have indicated that language is lateralized in children with LD and that the lateralized language asymmetries do not develop after age 6 nor are they affected by gender. Observed differences in lateralized language processes between control children and those with LD were found not due to delayed cerebral dominance, but rather to deficits in selective attention. In addition, attention factors have a greater influence on auditory processing of verbal than nonverbal stimuli for children with LD, and children with LD exhibit a general processing bias to the same hemisphere unlike control children. Furthermore, employing directed attention conditions in DL experiments has played an important role in explaining learning disabled children’s performance on DL tasks. We conclude that auditory perceptual asymmetries as assessed by DL with children who experience LD are the result of the interaction of hemispheric capability and attention factors.

► We review the DL literature on children with learning disabilities.
► Studies indicate lateralized language asymmetries do not develop after age six.
► Nor are they due to delayed cerebral dominance.
► They are due to the interaction of hemispheric capability and selective attention.