Kids name the darndest things: confrontation naming in pediatric neuropsychology

Abstract

ABSTRACT Few confrontation naming tests are designed for pediatric populations. The Children’s Visual Naming Test (cVNT; Hamberger et al., 2018) was developed to fill this gap. No independent studies using cVNT with clinical populations have been published to date. We aimed to characterize cVNT performance in a clinical sample and analyze the relationship between cVNT and other neuropsychological tests/constructs. Retrospective data was collected from 126 consecutively referred youth, aged 6–15 years (M = 11.28, SD = 2.80), who underwent clinical neuropsychological evaluation through an academic medical center. Naming under 2 seconds (cVNT-L2) and the summary scores (cVNT-SUM) were lower compared to the normative sample (cVNT-L2: M z =-1.30, SD = 2.17; cVNT-SUM: M z =-1.26, SD = 2.15). cVNT was related to core verbal abilities, processing speed, and response inhibition. cVNT-L2 and cVNT-SUM, but not naming under 20 seconds, were related to overall intellectual functioning, verbal fluency, and working memory, and were associated with overall attention, processing speed, executive functions, and verbal fluency. The cVNT provides assessment of confrontation naming without downward extension in pediatric neuropsychological assessment. Importantly, cVNT offers variables of higher fidelity to the neural process of naming than previous measures. cVNT may be associated with commonly assessed neuropsychological functions, providing a rapidly effective tool for screening batteries or improving efficiency.