Influence of schooling on language abilities of adults without linguistic disorders

Abstract

METHODS: Eighty volunteers were selected. Schooling was stratified into three bands: A (1-4 years), B (5-8 years) and C (nine years and over). The age range was from 17 to 80 years. All the subjects underwent the Montreal Toulouse (Modified MT Beta-86) language assessment protocol.RESULTS: Statistically significant differences were found in relation to schooling levels, in the tasks of oral comprehension, reading, graphical comprehension, naming, lexical availability, dictation, graphical naming of actions and number reading. Statistically significant age-related differences in dictation and lexical availability tasks were observed. CONCLUSIONS:The Montreal Toulouse (Modified MT Beta-86) test seems to be sensitive to variations in schooling and age. These variables should be taken into account when this test is used for assessing patients with brain damage. RESULTADOS:Foram verificadas diferenças estatisticamente significantes segundo a escolaridade nas tarefas de compreensão oral, leitura, compreensão gráfica, denominação, disponibilidade lexical, ditado, denominação gráfica de ações e leitura de números. Em relação à idade, verificamos diferenças estatisticamente significantes nas tarefas de ditado e disponibilidade lexical. CONCLUSÕES:As provas do teste Montreal Toulouse (MT Beta-86 Modificado) parecem ser sensíveis à variação de escolaridade e idade. Estas variáveis devem ser levadas em consideração quando o teste é utilizado para avaliação de sujeitos com lesão cerebral.

A topographic study on the evaluation of speech and language in the acute phase of a first stroke

“…Although not statistically significant, counting from 1 to 20 and comprehension tasks also were more impaired in patients with left hemisphere injuries. Difficulties for counting were probably due to language impairment and not to the low educational levels of our patients 17 , since the left hemisphere group had a lower proportion of subjects with four years or less of elementary schooling, besides having higher educational levels. Studies with larger samples might likely be able to differentiate brain injury sides from the analysis of the other items.…”

Ability of aphasic individuals to perform numerical processing and calculation tasks

“…Table 2 compares the performance of the two groups on various subtests. Although the groups differed in age, we do not consider that this difference affected the results because there were no elderly subjects in our sample, and there is no evidence of cognitive changes at these ages 19 .…”

Análise do reconhecimento das figuras do Teste MT Beta-86 modificado para uma adaptação: descrição e discussão de aspectos metodológicos

“…In addition to its cultural and linguistic patterns from other country, the responses by patients are also evaluated according to normality standards established by international studies (1) . Besides, the published literature often reports the lack of tools for the assessment of linguistic and cognitive abilities that are adequate to the Brazilian social, cultural, and linguistic specificities (1)(2)(3)(4) . In this context, when linguistic components are evaluated, the use of stimuli and instructions only translated into other language becomes more limiting, because language conveys the examination of the language itself.…”

“…One instrument that has been commonly referred to in the published literature (3,4) , is The Montreal Toulouse (Modified MT Beta-86) test (5) , which has resulted from the cooperation between the French and the Canadian researchers of aphasia. The Montreal Toulouse (Modified MT Beta-86) test of aphasia comprises tasks that enable characterization of graphic and oral emission, listening and graphics understanding, and repetition and fluency.…”

“…In Brazil, many clinicians and researchers have had contact with the material and began to use it in their clinical practice and/or in research; however, studies (4,(6)(7)(8)(9) have been performed with this protocol over the years and detected the need of adaptation. For the Montreal Toulouse protocol, to be a diagnostic tool capable of measuring linguistic process changes caused by brain damage, further studies aimed at the creation of stimuli fitted to the Brazilian linguistic reality are, extremely important.…”