Interaural asymmetry using dichotic filtered words in children with suspected auditory processing disorder: preliminary findings

• The direction and magnitude of interaural asymmetry (IA) on dichotic listening tests is often evaluated during diagnostic assessment for APD, with excessive IA (e.g., left-ear deficit) often taken as a sign of the disorder. • It is worthwhile to consider that clinical decisions about IA might be improved when the dichotic test itself generates meaningful amounts of asymmetry in the non-clinical population, but without introducing extra-auditory factors on test performance. • In this regard, a recent study evaluated performances to dichotic low-pass filtered speech (dichotic filtered words, DFWs) presented under DIV and DIR test modes in healthy young adults with normal hearing. Previous studies have suggested that the combined utility of DIV and DIR modes may help discern the relatively contributions of perceptual (bottom-up) versus cognitive (top-down) processing biases underlying IA.3,4 Results showed that larger values of IA (e.g., REA) were produced using DFW as compared to traditional non-filtered stimuli. The magnitude of IA for DFWs was similar between test modes. • The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the DFW paradigm in a sample of school-aged children with and without symptoms of APD.