Dichotic Listening Test (directed attention mode) in children with cleft lip and palate

Conductive hearing loss in the first years of life may lead to hearing processing and attention deficit disorders, and consequently to communication and learning impairments. AIM: this paper aims to examine the performance of children with cleft lip and palate in dichotic listening tests (directed attention mode) and compare them to a control group without cleft lip and palate. MATERIALS AND METHOD: fifty-two children of both genders were enrolled in the study. Their ages ranged between 7 years and 7 years and 11 months, and they were divided into two groups: a study group featuring children with cleft lip and palate (n=27) and a control group with children without this anomaly (n=25). The children were first interviewed, then underwent a series of conventional hearing tests, and lastly were applied the dichotic hearing test. RESULTS: when submitted to the dichotic listening test (directed attention mode), the children in the study group had lower scores for both ears when compared to those in the control group. Statistical significance was found for variable gender in the groups, with p=0.026. CONCLUSION: in the dichotic listening test only the girls with cleft lip and palate had lower scores than the girls in the control group. This is a prospective clinical study.