Reliability of dichotic listening using two stimulus formats with normal and learning-disabled children

This study was designed to establish test-retest reliability of the consonant vowel and digit formats of the dichotic listening test with normal and learning-disabled children between the ages of 7 and 10 years. Between-group differences on ear advantage and total accuracy scores were also examined. The results indicated that both groups showed a right ear advantage and that there were no significant differences in ear advantage between the two groups on either format. However, on the digit format, the learning-disabled group performed significantly lower than the normal group on both the percentage of total accuracy and the left ear raw score. There were no significant differences between the two groups on percentage of total accuracy or raw ear scores on the consonant vowel format. The normal group tended to obtain higher reliability coefficients than he learning-disabled group. Both groups tended to obtain higher reliability on the consonant vowel format than on the digit format. Wide variability in reliability results was found when using different laterality formulas to determine ear advantage.