Children with specific language impairment: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of dichotic listening performance

Specific language impairment (SLI) is one of the most common developmental disorders of higher cerebral function in children. This study was undertake n to examine the dichotic listening performance of children with SLI. Parti cipants included 37 school-age children who underwent a comprehensive neuro psychological evaluation that included measures of cognitive ability, recep tive and expressive language, visual-spatial perception-construction, immed iate-working memory, and achievement and ratings of behavior-emotionality. In addition, each child was administered a free-recall consonant-vowel syll able dichotic listening task (30 pairs). Results indicated that, although t he children with SLI exhibited a weak right-ear preference as a group, near ly 52% demonstrated a significant right-ear deficiency, whereas 29% exhibit ed left-ear deficiency and approximately 10% demonstrated bilateral-ear def iciency. The implication of these results is discussed with regard to their corresponding patterns of higher cortical dysfunction and their support fo r a qualitative differences model of SLI.