DICHOTIC-LISTENING AND FOCUSED ATTENTION IN CHILDREN WITH HEMIPLEGIC CEREBRAL-PALSY

Dichotic listening data are reported from children with left and right hemiplegia, compared with a normal, age-matched, control group. The d ichotic listening test was performed under two different attentional i nstructions. The aim of the study was to investigate whether lateral i njury to one hemisphere also affects the capacity to direct attention in a laterality task because of inattention. The dichotic task consist ed of consonant-vowel syllables that were presented with two different instructions, to attend to the left- or right-ear stimulus. The resul ts showed that the control children had a right-ear advantage during t he forced-right attention instruction, and a small left-ear advantage during the forced-left instruction. The two hemiplegia groups, however , showed the same ear advantage irrespective of attentional instructio n. The results are discussed in terms of hemi-inattention and hypoarou sal of the lesioned hemisphere in children with hemiplegia.