At the heart of SLI (specific language impairment) there is a disorder of auditory perception. In speech perception in children with SLI temporal processing there is one of the functions necessary for the discrimination of phonemes and of similar words. The existence of cognitive function disorders is much more important than those directly involved in the speech production . Our group of children with SLI was repeatedly tested during speech and hearing treatment by means of phonological awareness and of dichotic tests. 1. The phonological awareness was tried by pairs of words that are similar or differ on one phonem (the words were chosen according to distinctive features of sounds of Czech language). In comparison with results of children of appropriate age, SLI children have disturbed ability to differentiate phonemes. 2. Using central auditory dichotic tests we analysed integration receptive problems in children with SLI. Two-syllable words were presented simultaneously to both ears, the children had to repeat all together. The average number of correct responses was significantly lower in SLI children than in children from control group. Special hearing and speech treatment can improve auditory and auditory-related skills to create long-term benefit for children with SLI. In comparison and evaluation of results of both tests during our therapy we confirmed good success in word recognition, in phonological analysis and in central auditory function.

        Key words: phonological awareness, dichotic listening, specific language impairment