Moyamoya disease: impact on the performance of oral and written language

ABSTRACT

Moyamoya disease is an unusual form of occlusive, cerebrovascular disorder that affects the arteries of the central nervous system, causing acquired language alterations and learning difficulties. The study aim was to describe the oral/written language and cognitive skills in a seven-year-and-seven-month-old girl diagnosed with Moyamoya disease. The assessment consisted of interviews with her parents and application of the following instruments: Observation of Communicative Behavior, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Academic Performance Test, Profile of Phonological Awareness, Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test, Special Scale, Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Bender Visual Motor Gestalt Test, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Two episodes of stroke in the left and right temporal-parietal and left frontal areas occurred until the age of six years and five months. Revascularization surgery and medication treatment were conducted. The audiologic and ophthalmologic assessments indicated normality. At the time of the study, the girl was attending the second grade of elementary school. She presented changes in oral and written language (syllabic-alphabetic), non-naming of all graphemes, low arithmetic and writing means, reading skill below first grade level and psycholinguistic delay, and pre-school level phonological processing skills. The psychological evaluation indicated satisfactory intellectual level; however, it also showed cognitive performance impairment in verbal and execution tasks and limitations on graphic-perceptual-motor skills and sequential logic organization. The stroke episodes influenced the performance of learning processes, affecting the analysis, integration, and interpretation of relevant visual and auditory information.

Keywords:
Moyamoya Disease; Child Development; Stroke; Child Language; Learning; Cognition