Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Publication Date

7-21-1975

Abstract

Numerous investigations have reported that normal listeners show a right ear preference for dichotically presented speech stimuli. This preference depends on the fact that the left hemisphere is dominant for speech. Performances of non-language delayed children tend to reveal the expected right-ear advantage, even though inter-subject variability is observed. Language delayed subjects exhibit rather unpredictable performances ranging from a lack of ear preference to a left-ear advantage. The primary purpose of this investigation was to compare the performance of a group of language delayed children with a group of non-language delayed children, on a dichotic CV syllable listening task. The reliability of the dichotic task on test-retest conditions for both groups, and the performance differences of male and female subjects in the non-language delayed group were also examined. Comparisons made on absolute values between the non-language delayed and language delayed subjects revealed no significant differences. Within group comparisons, however, revealed a significant right-ear advantage for non-language delayed subjects on test and retest conditions. Language delayed subjects showed a lack of ear preference for the test condition and a significant right-ear advantage for the retest condition. No significant differences were found between male and female performances in the non-language delayed group, however, females had a tendency to report greater left-ear correct scores on the retest conditions than males. Furthermore, no relationship was found between test and retest performances for language delayed or non-language delayed subjects. The lack of reliability observed in this investigation suggests that any similarities or differences reported between the language delayed and non-language delayed subjects in comparison to other investigations, may be the result of a chance occurrence.

Degree Name

Speech-Language Pathology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Speech and Hearing Sciences

First Committee Member (Chair)

William John Ryan

Second Committee Member

Frederick Martin Chreist Sr.

Third Committee Member

Richard Baxter Hood

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

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