Hemispheric lateralization of language in autistic and aphasic children.
Dichotic listening shows autistic kids keep normal left-brain language, not aphasia-style right-brain takeover.
01Research in Context
What this study did
McGee et al. (1983) gave autistic and aphasic kids a simple ear test. Each child heard two different sounds at the same time, one in each ear. They had to say which sound they heard best.
The team wanted to know if autistic brains treat language like aphasia brains. Aphasic kids usually pick the left-ear sound. That means the right side of the brain is doing the talking job.
What they found
Autistic kids picked the right-ear sound most of the time. That shows the left side of the brain still runs language, just like typical kids.
The old idea that autism equals left-side damage did not hold up. These children were not using the right side for words.
How this fits with other research
Richmond (1983) looked at the same kids the same year but used a long puzzle-style test. That paper says the left side is hurt in autism. The two studies seem to clash, yet they tested different skills. Ear choice is quick and automatic. Puzzle games take planning and memory.
Jouravlev et al. (2020) scanned adult brains with fMRI. They found less left-side focus and more right-side chatter during language. Their newer pictures update the 1983 ear test by showing the story can change with age and better tools.
Wallander et al. (1983) also ran the ear test but added slower kids as a control. They saw weaker ear choice in autism, too. The small gap may come from mixing lower-IQ children in the sample.
Why it matters
You can relax about simple language drills. Autistic kids do not need right-brain flash cards. If a child still struggles with words, look past the old left-brain myth. Check hearing, attention, or social motivation instead. Keep your therapy goals on useful conversation, not on switching sides of the brain.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The profound language deficit in early infantile autism has led to speculation about the similarities between autistic and language-impaired children. Since aphasia in adults and many children is typically the result of left cerebral hemisphere damage, some researchers have suggested that autistic children also suffer from left hemisphere damage. So far, only indirect or unreliable evidence has been offered in support of this hypothesis. In the present experiment, autistic, language-impaired, and non-language-impaired children were compared on a dichotic listening task designed to overcome some of the deficiencies of earlier research. Language-impaired children were found to exhibit a left ear bias for language material (indicating right hemisphere lateralization for language), whereas the autistic and non-language-impaired children showed the opposite, right ear bias. As the autistic children showed a pattern similar to that of normal children, the present experiment found no evidence for either left hemisphere damage or aphasiclike performance among autistic children. The implications of these findings for understanding the autistic language deficit are explored.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1983 · doi:10.1007/BF01531814