Prematurity has captured the attention of many researchers mainly for its prevalence in the last and for its impact on child development, noticeable essentially on academic, cognitive and behavioral difficulties. Thus, one can define prematurity as a factor of risk as far as development and learning are concerned, consequently a risk for school transition and adjustment. Taking into consideration the idiosyncrasies of prematurity, this research aims to present the following: to evaluate the school adjustment of a group of children prematurely born and this is done through a survey named Questionário de Avaliação da Adaptação à Escola, relating the final results with data of clinical record (gestational age, birth weight and period of hospitalization), developmental (results of development profile from Escala de Desenvolvimento Mental (“Mental Development Scale”) by Ruth Griffiths at 5 years old) and familiar (parents’ level of schooling and job) of the children. Having as a sample 12 prematurely born children who started compulsory education in 2012/13, the data collection was made together with their primary school teachers and for this two tools were used: the Child Sociodemographic and Clinical Record and the Questionário de Avaliação da Adaptação à Escola (QAAE), authenticated and adapted to the Portuguese population by Pinto and Morgado, 1998 (Morgado, 1998). Taking the main results into account, the children in this study show higher average results regarding their behavior and social integration, and lower average results concerning basic requirements and fine motor skills. One can find that the Escala de Desenvolvimento Mental (“Mental Development Scale) by Ruth Griffiths presents a prognostic value regarding language skills. It was not noticed any statistically meaningful differences between QAAE results and Clinical Record data (gestational age, birth weight and period of hospitalization) and the Sociodemographic data (parents’ level of schooling and job). In conclusion, the implications and limitations of the research are here discussed and suggestions are also made with the aim of assisting in future studies.
Date of Award | 8 Jul 2013 |
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Original language | Portuguese |
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Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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Supervisor | Elisa Veiga (Supervisor) |
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- Prematurity
- School adjustment
- Biological risk factors
- Environmental risk factors
Avaliação da adaptação escolar de um grupo de crianças nascidas prematuramente
Valente da Silva, A. I. (Student). 8 Jul 2013
Student thesis: Master's Thesis