A aplicação do programa de intervenção “brincar e pensar para aprender a memorizar” em crianças com dificuldades comportamentais e de regulação emocional em contexto escolar

Abstract

Theoretical Background: Executive functions (EF) are a set of complex cognitive processes, including working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility. Studies have shown that executive functioning plays an important role in learning during childhood. It is known that children with behavioral and emotional regulation difficulties at preschool and school age sometimes show typical characteristics of ADHD, however, there are no guidelines in the DSM-V for making such early diagnoses. Thus, early intervention programs with activities involving the development of executive functions, combined with emotional and motivational stimulation, have proven to be effective in improving self-regulation, preparing children to start formal education and their academic performance. Method: The program was applied to 3 children aged 6. To complement the applicability study, an evaluation was carried out before and after the intervention. The neuropsychological assessment protocol applied pre- and post-intervention consisted of FE tests - Corsi Board, Digit Memory, Fish and Sharks, WMS and BANC Trails. After the assessment (pre-intervention), the implementation of the intervention program "Playing and Thinking to Learn to Memorize" (BPPAM) began, aimed at pre-school children (5 years old) and primary school children (6 years old), consisting of 23 activities divided into 12 bi weekly sessions. Results: Regarding the monitoring of the sessions, it was possible to obtain an Average Behavior (Mbehavior=3.09), Average Participation (Mparticipation=3.91), Average Interaction and Interest (Minterest=3.82) and Average Satisfaction (Msatisfaction=4.50). The teachers considered it important to implement the program for other children with the same characteristics. Discussion: Once the results were obtained, it was possible to establish that the program was applicable and acceptable to the participants. The results show that the program is applicable to children with these characteristics in a school context and is well accepted by the children themselves and by the teachers. It would be interesting in the future to consider an efficacy study of the program in these children to see if the application of the problem has an impact on the level of functioning of FE tasks after the implementation of the program.

Date of Award	4 Dec 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Vânia Silva Nunes (Supervisor) & Sofia Garcia da Silva (Supervisor)