A comment on the order of report in two-pair dichotic digit testing in children assessed for auditory processing.

Abstract

Objective: This clinical note aimed to 1) describe the order-of-report (OoR) strategies used by a large sample of children who completed 2pDD testing in the free-recall condition as part of an audiological assessment of auditory processing (AP), and 2) determine if use of OoR correlated with 2pDD test performance.

Design: A retrospective (case-review), single observation design.

Study sample: A convenient sample of 77 children (50 males and 27 females aged 7.0 to 17.4 years [median = 8.8 years]) referred to audiology for an AP assessment.

Results: The participating children used temporal more than ear or sequential OoR and showed decreased test scores with increased use of ear OoR.

Conclusions: These findings suggest children referred for an AP assessment could favour a temporal OoR when completing 2pDD testing for its opportunity to rehearse the first digit pair (possibly strengthening its memory trace) prior to processing the second digit pair, while their use of an ear OoR could come at the cost detrimental ear dominance effects that reduce their test performance. Future research could consider if similar results are observed in other child populations and if preferred dichotic processing strategy could inform auditory training for children with dichotic listening deficits.