Influence of brain lesion and educational background on language tests in aphasic subjects

In language assessment, several socio-demographic variables must be taken into account. Objectives To characterize the performance of aphasic patients with different educational background on language tasks and to compare their performance to that of individuals with no language disorders. Methods Thirty aphasic patients and 30 healthy individuals were selected. Patients were divided into two groups according to educational level: A (1-4 years) n=15 and B (5-11 years) n=15. Age ranged from 27 to 78 years. All subjects were submitted to the Montreal Toulouse language assessment protocol. The pertinent statistical tests were applied. Results Educational level interfered in the linguistic performance of normal subjects but not in that of aphasic subjects, whose performance was influenced more by the lesion. Conclusions The present study can contribute toward greater understanding of the influence of lesions and educational background on the language performance of aphasic subjects.