[Neuropsychological Assessment of Children: a test battery for children between 5 and 16 years of age. A Colombian normative study].

INTRODUCTION

A neuropsychological test battery for 5 to 16 year old children has recently been developed. This battery is called Neuropsychological Assessment of Children (Evaluacion Neuropsicológica Infantil, ENI) and it includes the following sections: attention, constructional skills, memory encoding, perceptual skills, memory recall, language, metalinguistic skills, reading, writing, arithmetic, spatial skills, conceptual skills and executive functions.

AIMS

Our aim was to obtain norms for the ENI in a Colombian population between 5 and 16 years of age.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS

We selected 252 children (92 boys and 160 girls) in the city of Manizales (Colombia), and they were administered the ENI. In order to obtain an external validity, 21 of the participants were also given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Revised (WISC R).

RESULTS

Statistically significant differences were found on most of the subtests across age groups. Differences between boys and girls appeared more specifically in tests of visuoperceptual, visual constructional, spatial and numerical skills. Some of the ENI subtests correlated with the WISC R subtests.

CONCLUSIONS

It is suggested that the ENI could satisfy the existing need in the Spanish speaking world for neuropsychological tools with which to assess children and adolescents.