Desempenho de crianças de escolas públicas em tarefas de fluência verbal fonológica e semântica.

Abstract

Introduction: Verbal fluency is a basic function of language that designates the ability to produce fluent speech. Although it consists of an essentially linguistic function, its measures have been widely developed and used also for the evaluation of executive aspects of verbal behavior. Performance in tasks of verbal fluency varies according to age, schooling and cognitive development. However, there are few studies in Brazil with sample data in this paradigm in public schools, which makes it relevant to collect data from different cultural contexts. Objective: This study has as main objective to analyze the performance of children from public schools in Semantic and Phonemic Verbal Fluency Tasks. Methodology: Three tasks of Verbal Phonological Fluency and three tasks of Semantic Verbal Fluency were performed with 100 children from seven to ten years old, duly enrolled in Elementary School I of public schools of the Patos Municipal Education Network. The data were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S), Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), followed by Variance Analysis (ANOVA) and Post-Hoc tests. The t test, Pearson's Correlation Coefficient and the Eta-partial squared (ηp²) were also used. Results: There was no effect of interaction between the variables: sex and age, as well as the gender variable on the general performance of the participants, however, a general effect of age was found. The three phonological fluency tasks both individually and in their summation were influenced by age. In the semantic fluency test, a significant age-related effect was found in the category "animals", in the category "fruits" and in the total number of correct answers in the task of semantic fluency. Conclusion: The results obtained seem to be supported by neurodevelopmental aspects, since explicit memory systems present an earlier maturational course and previous consolidation in relation to the executive functions and the frontal lobes, whose development extends to adulthood. The data were compatible with the existing literature, however, comparing with a study of the same methodological design with children from neighborhood private schools, public school children presented greater difficulties when compared to those children. The possibility that the socioeconomic variable is influencing the performance of verbal fluency tasks is raised.