The Picture-Print Matching Test (PPMT2.1) assesses the ability of naming pictures by choosing from among written words, and analyzes the cheremic, semantic and orthographic processes involved. The participants were 313 1st-9th grade deaf students, aged 6-34 years, from São Paulo bilingual schools, of which 77% had congenital auditory loss, and 49%, profound congenital loss. Students were exposed to the following tests: PPMT1.1 and 2.1, Receptive Vocabulary Test in Libras (RVTL), Word Reading Competence Test (WRCT), Sentence Reading Test (SRT), Picture Naming by Writing Test (PNWT), Sign Naming by Writing Test (SNWT), and Sign-Print Matching Test (SPMT). A standardization table was generated as a function of grade level PPMT2.1 presented the following significant positive correlations: very high (r = 0,89) with PPMT1.1; high (r = 0,77-0,80) with Picture Naming by Writing (PNWT) and Sentence Reading (SRT); medium (r = 0,62-0,68) with Sign Naming by Writing and Matching (SNWT and SPMT) and Word Reading Competence (WRCT), and low (r = 0,36) with Libras Receptive Vocabulary (RVTL). Out of 1.507 paralexias, 583 were orthographic, 546 were semantic, and 378 were cheremic. The latter revealed that, when matching print to pictures, deaf students first evoke signs to pictures and subsequently words to signs. This corroborates the hypothesis that cheremic lexicon links orthographic and pictorial lexicons. As to paralexias in Picture-Print Matching Test (PPMT2.1), orthographic paralexias were inversely proportional to reading competence (WRCT scores), whereas cheremic paralexias were inversely proportional to Libras Receptive Vocabulary (RVTL scores), which corroborates the validity of PPMT2.1 in inducing orthographic paralexias and cheremic paralexias.
special education; reading; assessment; deafness
