Normalization and Reliability Evaluation of Persian Version of Two-Pair Dichotic Digits in 8 to 12-Year-Old Children

• Main Authors: Mitra Rezapour, Farzaneh Zamiri Abdollahi, Maryam Delphi, Yones Lotfi, Enayat-Allah Bakhshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Negah Institute for Scientific Communication 2016-06-01
• Series: Iranian Rehabilitation Journal
• Subjects: Two-pair dichotic digits test; Dichotic hearing processing; Free recall paradigm
• Online Access: http://irj.uswr.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-119&slc_lang=en&sid=1
• ISSN: 1735-3602; 1735-3610

Objectives: All subjects suspected of Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) were previously tested by free recall dichotic digits test (DDT). The study objective was normalization and reliability evaluation of two-pair DDT in 750 native Persian subjects aged 8 to 12 years. Materials: A total of 750 subjects were divided into five age groups varying between 8 years and 12 years and 11 months old. Each age group had 150 subjects. DDT was tested in free recall condition. For evaluating DDT test-retest reliability, 300 participants (60 subjects in each age group) were tested again after one month. Results: Right and left ear mean score increased from 71.68(&plusmn;2.19) and 58.51(&plusmn;1.71) in the 8-year-old group to 90.26(&plusmn;1.96) and 88.38(&plusmn;1.36) in 12-year-old group, respectively. The mean Right Ear Advantage (REA) decreased from 13.16(&plusmn;2.58) in the 8-year-old group to 1.88(&plusmn;2.49) in the 12-year-old group. A high stability was observed between test-retest results (P<0.0001). Discussion: Persian version of two-pair dichotic digits exhibited proper reliability for evaluating 8 to 12-year-old subjects, and the study results can be used for evaluating the dichotic hearing function in subjects of the same age group.