Schizophrenia is often disguised as a crisis of adolescence. We want to understand how schizophrenia manifests itself in speech. We expect the difference in the Word Fluency Association Task (WFAT) in Normality Index and Time Delay.

The analyses data was collected by the WFAT (authored by V.Kritskaya). WFAT actualize speech connections based on past experience. Stimuli - various syllables of 2-letters (20 pcs.), 3-letters (30 pcs.), varying in frequency of use (compiled on the basis of the Corpuses of the Russian language). Instruction: “Now I will tell you a syllable, your task is to complete the proposed syllable to words as quickly as possible, your words must be real”. For study purposes we subdivided the sample into two subgroups: 12-14 years, 15-17 years. For statistical analysis we used U-criterion, Mann-Whitney. Analyzed parameters:

Normality index (NI) - the ratio of productive nouns to the amount of the standard associations

Time delay (TD) - response delay of the subject (sec., millisec.)

Study involved 57 participants: 27 adolescents with schizophrenia (Cl_G) aged from 12 to 18 years, assessed in the hospital setting (DS: F20.xx, F21.xx) and 30 normotypal peers (Co_G) assessed in the school setting. Exclusion criteria: patients in the acute psychotic phase, left-handers.

NI grouped with the following rates: subgroup 1- Co_G 70,4, Cl_G 58,5, subgroup 2 - Co_G 65,2, Cl_G 56,1 There was no statistically significant difference between Cl_g Co_g in NI (P=0,000 and p=0,002 respectively). TD grouped with the following rates: subgroup 1-Co_G 2,42, Cl_G 22,63, subgroup 2 - Co_G 4,48, Cl_G 3,14 There was statistically significant difference between Cl_g Co_g in TD (P=0,432 and p=0,25 respectively).

Temporal indicators of cognitive activity differ in the clinical and control groups, which testifies to the significance of this indicator in the context of WFAT. There is no difference in terms of semantics. However, we expect to see it, because such difference has previously been shown in a group of adult patients with a severe type of schizophrenia. In the future, we would like to expand the group and select additional methods that evaluate the semantic component.