Dichotic listening performance in learning-disabled children.

A dichotic listening test was administered to 114 learning-disabled children aged 6 to 10 years and the ratio of correct right ear responses to correct left ear responses was computed. Three subgroups were formed: those with a low right-left ear ratio, those with an average ratio, and those with a high ratio. The groups were given a battery of sensory integrative, postural-ocular, auditory-language, and academic tests. Mean scores were computed for each group. All three groups were considerably lower in their overall accuracy of response to the dichotic listening test than was a normative sample. The groups with low right-left ear ratios were less likely to have a somatosensory disorder than the other two groups, but they were more apt to have a language problem. There was a much larger percentage of children with very high right-left ratios (right ear very "superior" to left ear) than would be expected in a random population.