Funções executivas : curvas de desenvolvimento, construção e efeito do CENA – Programa de Capacitação de Educadores em Neuropsicologia da Aprendizagem

• Ano de defesa: 2017
• Autor(a) principal: Pureza, Janice da Rosa
• Orientador(a): Fonseca, Rochele Paz
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul
• Programa de Pós-Graduação: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia
• Departamento: Escola de Ciências da Saúde
• País: Brasil
• Palavras-chave em Português: Funções Executivas; Desenvolvimento; Intervenção Neuropsicológica; Capacitação de Educadores
• Área do conhecimento CNPq: CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA
• Link de acesso: http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/7817

In the context of neuropsychology, the study of executive functions (EF) has been gaining space, especially when it comes to understanding how executive processes develop during childhood. The EF play an important role in initial school processes and are an underlying aspect of learning and achieving good academic performance. Consequently, intervention programs have been developed to stimulate executive skills in the school setting. However, few studies focus on psychoeducation and effective training for teachers to stimulate the EF in school. The objectives of this thesis were to identify EF subcomponents and their development in children from 6 to 12 years of age, and to create and analyze the effects of an early and preventive neuropsychological intervention program. The program focused on training educators to stimulate the EF in 2nd and 3rd grade children. The first study explored which factors, as well as which cognitive, executive, and linguistic components are subjacent to performance scores in executive tasks. It also analyzed how children with ages from 6 to 12 years old develop such executive components. The final sample has 109 children with average age of 10.32 years old (SD=1.79) who were assessed through the following EF tasks: verbal fluency, Hayling Sentence Completion Test for children (HSCT-C), narrative discourse (ND), and Bells cancellation test. The results identified a model with three factors: (1) Factor 1: verbal executive component (language, working memory in the discursive process, verbal initiation, and planning); (2) Factor 2: cognitive flexibility and processing speed; and (3) Factor 3: inhibitory control. Age seemed to influence the development of the verbal executive factor, but not the development of cognitive flexibility, suggesting a gradual evolution for the latter. There was an increment in inhibitory control among younger children in comparison to older ones. These results are important to support the elaboration of effective intervention measures that stimulate the EF during childhood, both in clinical and in school settings. The second study presented the development process and content validity evidences of the CENA – early and preventive neuropsychological intervention training program for educators focused on EF and attention. The development of this program involved three different stages: research and theoretical assumptions (neuropsychology and education), construction of the program and brainstorming sessions with the authors, and expert referee analysis. The CENA was suitable with respect to its objectives, structure, language, and method, presenting evidences of content validity. The third 10 study examined the effect of the CENA on 2nd and 3rd grade children. The final sample had 19 teachers (EG=10 and CG=9) and 64 children (EG=32 and CG=32) who were assessed before and after the completion of the program. In the post-intervention analysis, there was an increase in performance of tasks involving arithmetic skills favoring children in the experimental group, indicating a transfer effect to the school setting. Some EF tasks were better performed by children in the control group. After the intervention, teachers in the experimental group showed greater appropriation of the contents addressed by the program. They also presented an improved ability to observe the executive and behavioral functioning of the children, especially with respect to concepts worked during the intervention (planning, inhibitory control, and working memory). The results of the three studies, in an integrated way, contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge at the interface of neuropsychology and education. They provide insight about both the development of EF subcomponents during childhood and the elaboration of an innovative early and preventive intervention program. Such program went through a rigorous validation and construction process and yielded results that suggest effectiveness. For future studies, the authors suggest the analysis of development curves of executive components with larger samples, and with association of verbal and visuospatial tasks. It is also recommended that the CENA be adapted to other school grades, especially in public schools. The CENA should benefit from a longer period and more systematic methods for execution and evaluation, providing an effective contribution of neuropsychology to education.