A-125 The Impact of Bilingualism on Symbol Digit Modalities Test Performance Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors exhibit cognitive deficits. Research suggests that multilingualism can influence neurocognitive performance. We examined the effects of TBI and bilingualism/monolingualism on a test attention speed (i.e., Symbol Digit Modalities Test; SDMT). Method The sample consisted 55 healthy comparison (27 Spanish-English bilinguals; 28 English-monolinguals), 34 acute (14 23 27 chronic (13 12 English-monolinguals) participants. Acute participants were tested 6 months post-injury; or more post-injury. A series 3X2 ANOVAs conducted to determine effect language SDMT written oral Results revealed group outperformed both groups written, p = 0.000, ηp2 0.21. Also, oral, 0.13. Interaction emerged between bilingualism/monolingualism. On English-monolinguals meanwhile, bilinguals English-monolinguals, < 0.05, 0.09–0.10. Conclusion performed worse than adults tasks. Furthermore, demonstrated better abilities compared group. Relative monolinguals with TBI, our findings suggest recovery in bilingual Future studies larger sizes should examine if learning English first second impacts survivors’ performance English-monolingual survivors.