Dichotic Listening Test-Retest Reliability in Children.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Neuroscience
• Speech and Language Pathology

Background:

• Dichotic listening tests are crucial for assessing auditory processing and hemispheric function.
• Variability in test-retest reliability can impact clinical diagnosis and research findings.
• Existing dichotic listening tests include the SCAN-3 Competing Words Test, Double Dichotic Digits Test, and Bergen Dichotic Listening Test.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the test-retest reliability of three commonly used dichotic listening tests.
• To evaluate the precision of scores derived from different item lengths within these tests.
• To determine the influence of age on test-retest reliability in children.

Main Methods:

• Sixty children aged 7-14 with normal hearing participated in a single study visit.
• Each participant completed three dichotic listening tests twice.
• Within-subject standard deviation (Sw) was calculated to measure test-retest reliability.

Main Results:

• Scores based on 40 items showed higher precision (Sw = 5%) compared to scores based on 20-30 items (Sw = 6%-8%).
• All three tests exhibited reliability within the predictions of the binomial model.
• Age showed a weak association with retest changes for the Words and Digits tests, potentially confounded by score trends.

Conclusions:

• The 40-item Digits Right, Digits Left, and Words Total scores offer the best test-retest reliability among clinically utilized measures.
• Shorter test versions result in less precise estimations of dichotic listening ability.
• Improving the precision of dichotic listening assessments necessitates the use of longer tests to minimize misdiagnosis and misclassification.