Developmental Comparison of Vowels and Consonants in Dichotic Listening

Abstract

Ear laterality for dichotically presented vowels and consonants was studied developmentally in 109 normal children between the ages of six and 12 years, using CVC words in edited natural speech. Vowels and consonants were equally right-ear dominant, and no developmental changes in laterality could be detected across the age range studied. Vowels were more easily identified than consonants, irrespective of age or ear, and accuracy in identification of vowels increased with age more rapidly than that of consonants. Results are contrasted with prior findings for steady-state vowels, which are unlateralized, and for vowels in nonsense CVCs, which showed only a weak right-ear dominance.