Language evaluation in preschoolers in the north of the city of Durango, Durango., Mexico

Abstract

The percentage of Latin American children of preschool age, with deficiencies in language development, ranges from 10% to 80%. Objective: To know the percentage of deficiency in the language of preschool children in the north of the city of Durango, Dgo., Mexico, using the child neuropsychological maturity questionnaire. Methodology: The study was non-experimental, observational, transectional and descriptive in a work universe of 833 children, considering a statistically significant sample of 214 participants with 95% reliability, but due to the completion of the school year it was only possible to evaluate 148 participants in a period from November 2017 to June 2018. The studied group was divided into four subgroups: a group of 55-60 months of age, second group of 61-66 months of age, third group of 67-72 months of age and the fourth group 73-78 months of age. Results: Cronbach's Alpha of the studied variables was 0.618, observing deficiencies in the two evaluated language areas, verbal language and non-verbal language. In the four groups studied, the greatest deficiency was observed in the area of ​​verbal language, with percentages that ranged from -80.5% to -95.9% in verbal fluency; expressive language with -27.5% to -55.2%; comprehensive language with -15.7% to -31.1% and articulatory language with -14.1% to -19.3%. The other variables of the non-verbal language group, which are spatial structuring, psychomotor skills, visual perception and iconic memory, presented lower percentages of deficiency than those observed in the verbal language variables, highlighting attention with -39.5% to -43.2%, rhythm with - 2.9% to -34.5%, visoperception with -10.6% to -25.7%, spatial structuring with -3.5% to -11.1%, iconic memory with -6.8%, psychomotor skills with -3.6%. All the age groups studied showed deficiency in six or more variables of the evaluation instrument used. The non-verbal language variables that presented satisfactory results, by age group were: spatial structuring in the 55-60 group and in the 67-72 group; psychomotor skills in the 55-60, 61-66 and 67-72 group; visoperception in the 55-60 group; iconic memory in groups 55-60 and 67-72. Conclusion: The language area most affected was verbal language, which allows considering the need to implement the evaluation of language development in the preschool child population to consider the opportunity to improve the development of children's language.