Characterizing language outcomes following childhood basal ganglia stroke.
The basal ganglia are important for movement and executive function, but its contribution to language is less understood. This study explored language outcomes associated with childhood basal ganglia stroke. A detailed language coding scheme, which examined expressive and receptive language, verbal fluency, narrative discourse, pragmatic/applied language, and academics, was developed from qualitative and quantitative data acquired from neuropsychological testing and reports. Overall intellectual functioning and verbal comprehension was in the average range. Twelve participants had psychological diagnoses, including Learning Disorder. No one had a Language Disorder diagnosis. Among the 18 children who did not receive a diagnosis, many exhibited language issues in the mild to severe range according to our coding scheme. These children had higher-order language difficulties in verbal fluency, narrative, and pragmatic language rather than overt expressive difficulties noted in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) diagnostic criteria. There was an association between infarct size and ESL/immersion education, math performance, and presence of a psychological diagnosis. Psychological diagnosis was also associated with literacy skills. The results highlight that language issues following basal ganglia stroke may not be fully captured by standardized neuropsychological tests and psychological diagnoses. Findings reinforce the need to integrate quantitative and qualitative findings when examining language functioning.
['Peterson|Rachel K|RK|https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9544-9000', 'McDonald|Kyla P|KP|', 'Vincent|Megan|M|', 'Williams|Tricia S|TS|', 'Dlamini|Nomazulu|N|', 'Westmacott|Robyn|R|']
D000076363:Academic Success D000293:Adolescent D001479:Basal Ganglia D001526:Behavioral Symptoms D002648:Child D002675:Child, Preschool D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007806:Language Disorders D007859:Learning Disabilities D008297:Male D009483:Neuropsychological Tests D036301:Qualitative Research D012720:Severity of Illness Index D020521:Stroke
language Basal ganglia childhood stroke neuropsychological outcomes pediatrics subcortical