Medidas de avaliação neuropsicológica das funções executivas em crianças do pré-escolar

: revisão sistemática

Abstract

Theoretical Background: Neuropsychological assessment measures of executive functions (EF) in children of preschool age are still poorly investigated, when compared with adults. The study of EF has generated disagreements between authors, with some supporting it as EF as a unitary construct, especially at preschool ages. Aims: It is proposed to conduct a systematic review of the qualitative literature to (a) identify the EF measures constructed/studied for children of preschool age; (b) identify the component (s) that EF measures evaluate; (c) identify EF measures with data for the Portuguese preschool population. Method: This bibliographic search used four electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, Psycinfo and Scopus), having as main descriptors “Executive Functions”,“Preschoolers” and “Measures”, to search for peer-reviewed studies published in the last 15 years. Results: Of the 39 eligible studies for review, 87 measures for the evaluation of EF applied to children of preschool age were identified, most of them from North America and Europe. Of the revised measures, 10 were used most frequently (namely, Dimensional Change Card Sort, Word span, Digit Span, Stroop Day/night, Go/no-go, Shape School, Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders, Boy/Girl Stroop, Hanoi Tower andBear/Dragon). It can be observed that there are few studies that evaluate a single component, yet the most studied component is inhibitory control. Of the studies carriedout in the national territory, four were found that provide performance data for EF in the Portuguese preschool population through the translation/adaptation of assessment measures. Conclusion: It was found that in the last few years there has been a great increase in the study of instruments for measuring EF in preschoolers. In turn, the study of the semeasures in the Portuguese population is still very recent and needs further investigation.

Date of Award	27 Apr 2021
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Joana Rodrigues Rato (Supervisor)