Doctoral dissertation: The driving abilities of traumatized drivers due to causing road accidents with respect to the passage of time

Introduction: The phenomena of verbal and language developmental disorder by no means can be narrowed to the deficit of verbal and language abilities. It is essential to unfold the attached non-language cognitive shortages. The specific (acoustic - phonologic) processing abilities are related to the language capability and its development. The genetic determination and the central role of the environment of all these are crucial. Besides the biological and the psychological conditions of language acquirement, the optimal language environment, the quality and the quantity of the language sample are also important socio-cultural requirements. These needs are falling behind more and more. The non-verbal deficits can also be responsible for the language symptoms, so the examination of the non-verbal particularities can take us closer to the identification of the specific cognitive abilities taking part in the language acquirement.

Objectives: Besides the original target group of the Pyramid and Palm Trees (further PPT) and Kempler Comprehension test (aphasia, visual agnosia, Alzheimer’s disease as semantic memory deficit), they are suitable for the examination of children between the age of 8-12. The achieved results can be even used for creating a Hungarian standard. I do not only compare the performance of the children with developmental dyslexia with the control group but also with the results of the socially disadvantaged students, at whom I perceived failure during the process of the examination. The differences among the three groups are to be highlighted. I wish to increase the number of the sample to ensure the objectivity, reliability and validity of the measuring tests.

Method: In my research I have chosen two tests without Hungarian standards to prove they are suitable for measuring children. So far, this type of research has not been made. The Pyramid and Palm Trees test is the nonverbal measurement of the semantic memory which has been used with subjects with aphasia, agnosia and dementia. PPT examines the weakness of the cognitive level of the semantic processing which is essential for the identification of analogies. Daniel Kempler’s picture selection test contains 24 items to measure sentence comprehension and the processing of the meaning of words in syntactically 6 different sentence types.

Subjects: 50 children with developmental dyslexia, 50 socially disadvantaged and 50 children for control have been chosen according to certain well-defined criteria from the age group of 8-12. The first two groups are from the students of the primary schools of X. district and the children of the third group are from the institutions of the XIX. district.

Results: Comparisons between groups, age-groups and test items have been made. Statistical tests have proved that there is no significant difference between the performance of the developmental dyslexia group and the socially disadvantaged group. There is a significant difference between the results of the control and the dyslexia group. There is also a significant alteration between the results of the socially disadvantaged group and the control.

Conclusions: The results of the research prove that the two tests are suitable for measuring children. They indicate the problems of language development. The use of the widespread intelligence measuring test (WISC-IV), which takes 90 minutes to be completed could be substituted with the Pyramid and Palm Trees test and the Kempler Comprehension test.