Survey of perception and expression of common names in Persian speaking normal children in the age of 4-8

Introduction: One of the first cognitive abilities of children is naming and name perception. There is numerous tests in English and other languages about perception and/or expression of names but there is not in Persian language, and also some researches studied these abilities in children and adults. In this research our aim was to determine statistical descriptive of these abilities in a sample of normal Semnanian children, and to compare mean scores of different age and sex groups. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study, at first we prepared a collection of 195 pictures and a special record sheet. Perception and expression of each picture have 2 scores, and then, sum of scores is 390. We selected randomly 150 subjects from 4-8 years old children of the kindergartens and the schools in Semnan. Then, we determined the perception and/or expression of names of children with the pictures of test (abbreviated in farsi, ATA). Children were normal in hearing, speech, language and intelligence. To determine, coorelate and compare of mean scores, we used "T test", "Correlation" and "one-way ANOVA". Results: Mean score of name expression, perception, and sum increases as a function of age increase (P = 0.000). Girls, in comparison had lesser ability than boys in name perception, expression, and sum (P = 0.05). Ability of children in name perception increases, as their name expression ability increases (r = 0.8212, P= 0.000). Conclusion: The results of this research represent useful information about name perception and expression skills in 4-8 years old children. Our findings can prepare a foundation for pathological studies on some aspects of languages learning disorders. Therefore, a test may be designed to determine name perception and expression ability in children. Although the test used in this research is appropriate, it is long and time consuming, needs to be categorized, and standardized. It must be investigated why girls, in comparison with boys showed statistically significant less abilities. One of the possible causes of Semnanian boy's priority in name perception, and expression maybe their cultural and environmental circumstances which may prepare more communication facilities with others for them (in comparison with girls).