Stammering and dichotic listening

Abstract

An early theory of stammering considered that the disorder was related to "confused" cerebral dominance. A number of recent studies have re-examined whether there are any differences between stammerers and normal speakers with respect to their hemispheric representation for speech. The findings of these studies are shown to be equivocal. The present study investigated the performance of stammering and normal speaking children on a number of dichotic verbal tasks. Significantly fewer numbers of stammerers than normal speakers showed right ear effects on a consonant and a vowel test. These differences were not observed when subjects were divided according to their obtained fluency scores, collapsed over "stammerer" diagnosis. The findings of the present study provide some support for the early idea of a greater degree of hemispheric bilaterality for speech functions among stammerers.