Abstract

Background: Previous studies have reported the weakness of recognition of speech-in-noise and dichotic listening deficit in Learning-Disabled (LD) children. This study aimed at further investigating these two deficits in LD children. Methods: Overall, 33 LD children with dichotic listening deficit from a government rehabilitation center and 39 normal-achieving (NLA) children from three elementary schools were selected with the convenience sampling method to participate in this crosssectional study (Tehran, Iran). Learning-disabled children were categorized in two categories of unilateral dichotic separation deficit (UDSD) and bilateral dichotic separation deficit (BDSD). Results: Mean (SD) of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for binaural recognition of words and digits-in-noise in LD children (3.51.7 and -11.02.1 dB, respectively) was significantly higher than corresponding means of NLA children (1.81.1 and -13.81.1 dB, respectively (P = 0.001)). Mean SNR of the right ear in BDSD children in recognition of words-in-noise (5.01.9 dB) was significantly higher than that of the right ear in UDSD children (3.51.5 dB; P = 0.018, d = 0.96). Conclusions: Monaural and binaural recognition of words and digits-in-noise are impaired in LD children with dichotic listening deficit. It seems that BDSD children show an inter-aural asymmetry in recognition of words-in-noise with poorer performance in the right ear.

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