Verbal Fluency Development Across Childhood: Normative Data from Brazilian–Portuguese Speakers and Underlying Cognitive Processes

Becker, Natália; Piccolo, Luciane da Rosa; Salles, Jerusa Fumagalli de

doi:10.1093/arclin/acz022

Cited by 16 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(172 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We highlight that the VF test (or task) assesses language (lexical knowledge) and executive functions (Becker et al 2019 ). Li and colleagues (Lin et al 2017 ), investigated brain activation in adults using VF tests; they emphasized the predictive potential of VF tests which might be employed for executive function screening.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental opportunities facilitating cognitive development in preschoolers: development of a multicriteria index

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Access to environmental opportunities can favor children’s learning and cognitive development. The objectives is to construct an index that synthesizes environmental learning opportunities for preschoolers considering the home environment and verify whether the index can predict preschoolers’ cognitive development. A quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted with 51 preschoolers using a multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT). The criteria used for drawing up the index were supported by the literature and subdivided in Group A “Resources from the house” extracted from HOME Inventory including: (1) to have three or more puzzles; (2) have at least ten children’s books; (3) be encouraged to learn the alphabet; (4) take the family out at least every 2 weeks. Group B “Screens” (5) caution with using television; (6) total screen time in day/minutes. Group C “Parental Schooling” (7) maternal and paternal education. Pearson correlation analyses and univariate linear regression were performed to verify the relationship between the established index with cognitive test results. The index correlated with the total score of the mini-mental state exam (MMC) and verbal fluency test (VF) in the category of total word production and word production without errors. Multicriteria index explained 18% of the VF (total word production), 19% of the VF (total production of words without errors) and 17% of the MMC. The present multicriteria index has potential application as it synthesizes the preschooler’s environmental learning opportunities and predicts domains of child cognitive development.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental opportunities facilitating cognitive development in preschoolers: development of a multicriteria index

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The children with RD in this study differed from the other groups in verbal memory and oral and written language abilities, such as phonological awareness and lexical-semantic processing. 47,48 Therefore, children with RD may perform poorly on these tasks due to difficulties in verbal aspects rather than executive aspects, since verbal fluency is also related to the number of words known/learned. Indeed, vocabulary is a significant predictor of reading performance (words and text) in school-age children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are “cool” executive function impairments more salient in ADHD symptoms than in reading disability?

Koltermann

Becker

Lopes-Silva

et al. 2020

Dement. neuropsychol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction: Reading disability (RD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms often co-occur in school-age children. Methods: The present study evaluated the performance of 216 Brazilian children from 3 rd and 4 th grades on "cool" executive function (EF) abilities and phonological processing. The children were divided into three groups: those with ADHD symptoms only, those with RD only, and controls. Results: MANOVA analyses, controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence, showed worse performance for the RD group, compared to the ADHD symptoms group, on measures of phonological processing (phonemic awareness, phonological short-term memory, and lexical access) and "cool" EF components (orthographic verbal fluency and processing speed). The ADHD symptoms group did not differ from the control group on the majority of the "cool" EF tasks. Compared to the control group, the ADHD symptoms group and the RD group both showed significantly more errors in rapid automatized naming of figures, which evaluates the inhibition component of EF; performance on this task was similar for these groups. Conclusion: We conclude that children with RD have greater impairment in phonological processing and "cool" EF compared to those with ADHD symptoms. Furthermore, deficits in inhibitory control may be shared among children with both conditions. ? RESUMO. Introdução: Dificuldades de leitura (DL) e sintomas do Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH) frequentemente coocorrem em crianças escolares. Métodos: O presente estudo comparou o desempenho em FE "frias" e processamento fonológico de 216 crianças brasileiras de 3ª e 4ª anos, que foram divididas em três grupos: apenas com sintomas de TDAH, apenas em DL e controles. Resultados: As análises de MANOVA, controlando para idade e inteligência não-verbal, indicaram que o grupo com DL apresentou desempenho significativamente inferior ao grupo com sintomas de TDAH nas medidas de processamento fonológico (consciência fonológica, memória verbal de curto prazo e acesso lexical) e em componentes das FE "frias" (fluência verbal ortográfica e velocidade de processamento). O grupo com sintomas de TDAH não se diferiram do grupo controle na maior parte das tarefas de FE "frias". Ambos os grupos com sintomas de TDAH e DL apresentaram desempenhos significativamente menores (mais erros) em comparação às crianças de desenvolvimento típico na tarefa de Nomeação Seriada Rápida de figuras que avalia o componente de controle inibitório, e o desempenho foi semelhante entre os

show abstract

“…These results support Kavé et al's (2008) idea that NS may be a better measure of frontal component of efficient strategic retrieval and inhibition than NC, according to them, because it takes single words switching into account. Moreover, Becker et al (2019) speculated that switching may have a larger contribution compared with clustering, and that this may be associated with the development of executive functions (related to frontal lobe maturation). CS has been also related to phonological and semantic TS in Koren et al (2005).…”

Section: Phonological Fluencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Phonological and semantic verbal fluency test: Scoring criteria and normative data for clustering and switching strategies for Colombian children and adolescents

Medina

Moragues

Arango‐Lasprilla

et al. 2023

Intl J Lang & Comm Disor

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundVerbal fluency tests (VFT) are highly sensitive to cognitive deficits. Usually, the score on VFT is based on the number of correct words produced, yet it alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. The implementation of different strategies (cluster and switching) to perform efficiently during the tasks provide more valuable information. However, normative data for clustering and switching strategies are scarce. Moreover, scoring criteria adapted to Colombian Spanish are missing.Aims(1) To describe the Colombian adaptation of the scoring system guidelines for clustering and switching strategies in VFT; (2) to determine its reliability; and (3) to provide normative data for Colombian children and adolescents aged 6–17 years.Methods & ProceduresA total of 691 children and adolescents from Colombia completed phonological (/f/, /a/, /s/, /m/, /r/ and /p/) and semantic (animals and fruits) VFT, and five scores were calculated: total score (TS), number of clusters (NC), cluster size (CS), mean cluster size (MCS) and number of switches (NS). The intraclass correlation coefficient was used for interrater reliability. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to investigate which strategies were associated with VFT TS. Multiple regressions were conducted for each strategy, including as predictors age, age2, sex, mean parents’ education (MPE), MPE2 and type of school, to generate normative data.Outcomes & ResultsReliability indexes were excellent. Age was associated with VFT TS, but weakly compared with strategies. For both VFT TS, NS was the strongest variable, followed by CS and NC. Regarding norms, age was the strongest predictor for all measures, while age2 was relevant for NC (/f/ phoneme) and NS (/m/ phoneme). Participants with higher MPE obtained more NC, and NS, and larger CS in several phonemes and categories. Children and adolescents from private school generated more NC, NS and larger CS in /s/ phoneme.Conclusions & ImplicationsThis study provides new scoring guidelines and normative data for clustering and switching strategies for Colombian children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years old. Clinical neuropsychologists should include these measures as part of their everyday practice.WHAT THIS PAPER ADDSWhat is already known on the subject VFT are widely used within the paediatric population due to its sensitivity to brain injury. Its score is based on the number of correct words produced; however, TS alone gives little information regarding underlying test performance. Several normative data for VFT TS in the paediatric population exist, but normative data for clustering and switching strategies are scarce.What this paper adds to existing knowledge The present study is the first to describe the Colombian adaptation of the scoring guidelines for clustering and switching strategies, and provided normative data for these strategies for children and adolescents between 6 and 17 years old.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Knowing VFT's performance, including strategy development and use in healthy children and adolescents, may be useful for clinical settings. We encourage clinicians to include not only TS, but also a careful analysis of strategies that may be more informative of the underlying cognitive processes failure than TS.

show abstract

Verbal Fluency Development Across Childhood: Normative Data from Brazilian–Portuguese Speakers and Underlying Cognitive Processes

Cited by 16 publications

References 53 publications

Environmental opportunities facilitating cognitive development in preschoolers: development of a multicriteria index

Environmental opportunities facilitating cognitive development in preschoolers: development of a multicriteria index

Are “cool” executive function impairments more salient in ADHD symptoms than in reading disability?

Phonological and semantic verbal fluency test: Scoring criteria and normative data for clustering and switching strategies for Colombian children and adolescents

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About