Number transcoding (e.g., writing 29 when hearing "twenty-nine") is one of the most basic numerical abilities required in daily life and is paramount for mathematics achievement. The aim of this study is to investigate psychometric properties of an Arabic number-writing task and its capacity to identify children with mathematics difficulties. We assessed 786 children (55% girls) from first to fourth grades, who were classified as children with mathematics difficulties (n = 103) or controls (n = 683). Although error rates were low, the task presented adequate internal consistency (0.91). Analyses revealed effective diagnostic accuracy in first and second school grades (specificity equals to 0.67 and 0.76 respectively, and sensitivity equals to 0.70 and 0.88 respectively). Moreover, items tapping the understanding of place-value syntax were the most sensitive to mathematics achievement. Overall, we propose that number transcoding is a useful tool for the assessment of mathematics abilities in early elementary school.

Data here provided may contribute to the interpretation of the results of FERT in different cultural contexts and highlight the common bias that should be corrected in the future tasks to be developed.

Although migraine is highly prevalent in children and teenagers, it often goes undetected in these patients, resulting in underdiagnosis and inadequate treatment. Several studies have investigated cognitive changes in adults with migraine. However, there are few studies focusing on children and adolescents.Objective:To investigate cognitive performance of adolescents with migraine. Methods:Twenty-eight adolescents diagnosed with migraine and twenty-six individuals without a history of headache were recruited for the study. All participants were evaluated using standardized neuropsychological tests. Results:Adolescents with migraine had worse performance on tests evaluating short- and long-term verbal memory, attention, executive function, and speed of processing information than controls. Conclusion:Cognitive dysfunction is common in adolescents with migraine. Since the cognitive deficits found in adolescents with migraine are similar to those reported in adults with migraine, cognitive impairment seems to persist throughout life.

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Background The diagnosis of cognitive disorders in Parkinson disease (PD) can be very challenging. Aiming at establishing uniform and reliable diagnostic procedures, the International Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorder Society (MDS) commissioned task forces to delineate diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia in PD. Objectives To investigate the applicability of the MDS recommendations for cognitive evaluation in a Brazilian sample of patients with PD with low levels of formal education. Methods A total of 41 patients with PD were subjected to a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation based on tests proposed by the MDS, which included the Mini-Mental State Examination, the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (MDRS), the Trail Making Test (TMT) parts A and B, in addition to language and memory skills assessment. Neuropsychiatric and daily functioning features were also evaluated. Spearman correlation analyses were used to evaluate the association between the scores obtained in the cognitive scales and demographic/clinical variables. Results Although none of the participants had a formal diagnosis of dementia, 50% presented some degree of cognitive impairment when considering the results of the MDRS. Of note, a noticeable number of patients was not able to complete the full neuropsychological assessment. The TMT part B was the most difficult task, being completed by only 22 participants (54%). As expected, the greater the educational level, the better the performance on the cognitive tests. Better motor function was also associated with better scores in cognition. Conclusions Adopting strict inclusion/exclusion criteria and a comprehensive clinical evaluation, we found remarkable limitations for the MDS recommendations when individuals with low educational levels are considered. A revision of the current guidelines is necessary considering differences among populations, especially related to formal education.