DICHOTIC DIGITS TEST – WHAT IT CAN TELLS US ABOUT LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION ABILITIES OF SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN

Senderski A (1), McPherson D (2), Kochanek K  (1), A.Pilka A.(1), Skarzynski H.(1)

(1) Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing Warsaw, Poland; (2) Brigham Young University  Provo, USA.

Dichotic listening tests are among the most powerful of the behavioral auditory  processing test battery. They are used  as a measure of interhemispheric transfer of information  and development and maturation of the auditory nervous system.  We have developed polish dichotic digits test (DDT) based on  English dichotic digits (Musiek, 1983)  Based on the material of more than 50000 school children tested in hearing screening programs in Poland in the years 2007 and 2008 we developed the normative values for 7 and 12 y old children and gathered data from audiological questionnaires. The aim of the study was to assess the correlation between clinical information about learning and communication abilities from the questionnaire and the results of dichotic digit test in school age children.  Based on DDT and pure tone audiometry results subjects were separated on three groups (C) - central auditory processing disorder group, (P) - peripheral hearing impairment group and (N) - children with normal hearing sensitivity and normal results of the dichotic digit test. Results: children from group C had more often delayed or disturbed speech development, and lower school achievements in comparison with those from group (N) and (P). More than 40 % of children from group (C) had dyslexia and more than 35% of children from group (C) had problems with learning of foreign languages. The results of this analysis have shown that in substantial number of children with learning and language problems there are abnormal results of dichotic digits test. We discuss the issue of the contribution on non-auditory-specific factors on the results of dichotic digits test and its usefulness as a screening test for central auditory processing disorder.

E-mail: a.senderski@ifps.org.pl