A preliminary experiment was conducted to explore the effects of illiteracy on hemispheric specialization. Groups of literate and illiterate Iranian children were tested on three dichotic tapes consisting of monosyllabic animal names, double-digit numbers, and nonverbal environmental sounds. All children were also tested for handedness and for auditory acuity. Results indicated a significant overall right ear advantage for both verbal tapes on measures of accuracy and order of recall. The right ear advantage varied as a function of sex and literacy: literates and females demonstrated significantly higher accuracy rates than did illiterates and males, on both verbal tapes. In the case of the nonverbal tape, literate males and illiterate females demonstrated a left ear advantage both on accuracy and on order of recall measures. (Author/AA)