| dc.description.abstract | This study attempted to replicate the finding by Green
and Josey (1988) in some groups of learning disabled
children of better comprehension of spoken language in
one single ear (monaural condition) than in both ears
together (binaural condition). The Auditory
Comprehension Test (ACT) which is designed specifically
to measure this "binaural deficit" was administered to
36 learning disabled children, from which a subgroup of
learning disabled subjects judged by teachers to have
prominent difficulty comprehending everyday speech was
later selected, and a control group of 36 non-learning
disabled children individually matched for age, sex,
and IQ with the learning disabled children. The ACT
involves presenting short news item-style stories via
headphones to either ear alone, or both ears
simultaneously. After each story the subject repeats
as much of the story as s/he can remember. The
resulting three scores (left ear, right ear, and both
ears simultaneously) are compared to determine if
listening with either single ear produces better
comprehension than listening with both ears together (i.e. to see if a binaural deficit exists).
Comparisons between the control and learning disabled
groups revealed significant differences in the
direction of (1) higher average test scores for the
control group, and (2) higher overall binaural deficits
for the learning disabled group, as well as a larger
number of subjects in the learning disabled group
having a binaural deficit. The control group also
performed significantly poorer in the binaural
condition than in either single ear alone, indicating a
possible bias in the ACT itself, and/or a possible
selection bias. The test bias points to the need for
revisions to the ACT in its application to children. | |
