Desempenho motor de escolares com dislexia, transtornos e dificuldades de aprendizagem

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Concepções de professores sobre a temática das chamadas dificuldades de aprendizagem

This study aimed to identify the conceptions of learning difficulties of teachers working in the beginning years of elementary education. In order to analyze such conceptions from the perspective of inclusive education, the study was carried out in two schools in a city of the State of Paraná. Sixteen teachers (mean age of 41 years) participated in the study. Of these, only one had no higher education. Interviews were carried out individually in the teachers` schools. The interviews were conducted with the support of a topic outline including: aspects of classroom management of the classes in which teachers worked; how to identify students with learning disabilities; causes of learning difficulties; how the school can help a student with learning difficulties. Each interview lasted 50 minutes on average. They were transcribed in full and submitted to thematic analysis. Four categories of analysis were determined: characterization of educational institutions' proposal; conceptions on the identification of students with learning difficulties; conceptions about causes of learning difficulties; possibilities for assisting students with learning difficulties. The results indicated that the main factors reported by the participants on the characterization of pupils with learning difficulties were of the cognitive order. The data also showed that the teachers based their opinions on family aspects in order to focus on causes of learning difficulties; they attributed the largest parcel of responsibility for solving such situations to students' families. One of the main conclusions of this study allowed us to consider that the schools that were investigated reported a practice that doesn't meet the inclusive education assumptions, denoted by the attempt to homogenize regular classes.

Potenciais evocados auditivos de longa latência em escolares com transtornos específicos de aprendizagem

Purpose: To study the components of long latency auditory evoked potentials and to compare data from these measures in students with and without learning disabilities. Method: Thirty students, 15 with learning disorder (study group) and 15 typical without learning problems (control group), of both genders, aged 7-14 years, mean age 10 years. They underwent clinical assessment in a clinic belonging to a public university in the state of São Paulo. Following, audiological assessment was performed to determine normal peripheral auditory system and electrophysiological assessment by examining the long latency auditory evoked response. Result: The results showed that there are functional differences between the groups. Increased latency components of long latency auditory evoked potential was observed in the study group compared to the control group. Longer latency values of these components were observed in the left ear when stimulated in the study group. Conclusion: This study contributed to better understanding of the auditory pathway functioning in children with learning disorders and can be a reference for other clinical and experimental studies and thus improve the definition of diagnostic criteria in this population.

Dificuldades e/ou problemas de aprendizagem: concepções e práticas docentes

It is known that some children fail to learn in school and among them are those that present difficulties and / or learning problems. At this difficulty and / or problems are attributed to various causes neurological problems, environmental or both. The areas most likely to be affected are: reading, writing and mathematics. This situation happens frequently in the daily life of schools and teachers should be prepared to work with diversity and enable the development of all, this includes having this particular part of the school population has a significant learning and an appropriate social relationship. It is therefore aim of this study, to investigate the conceptions of teachers in relation to the theme and possible practices of those in public elementary schools in Bauru city, a medium-sized city in the state of Sao Paulo, with those children who can not learn. Because it is a fact that often occurs in schools, it is necessary to investigate how teachers are working with these students since the school should ensure quality education for all and pedagogical efficiency. To obtain the data we used a questionnaire with multiple choice and essay questions, this tool was applied to a municipal school. It was noted that there is confusion between the terms learning difficulties and problems which affect the performance of teachers with these students and the working conditions of educators hinder their practices

Discuntindo as concepções de professores do segundo ano do ensino fundamental sobre transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade (TDAH)

Researches show high rates of school failure on the part of students who are unable to learn, referring to them as the idea of an incapable individual and intended not to achieve the goals proposed during the school year. Among the most varied problems posed by teachers and that are instilled in students in order to justify the poor performance of the same, we find Disorder Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Faced with this problem the objective was to investigate teachers‟ conception of the second year of primary education on ADHD, knowing well the mechanisms of identification, confirmation and referral of these cases, as well as the appropriate treatment and teaching practices suggested. To achieve the proposed objective a literature search was performed supplemented by an empirical study in which we used two instruments to collect data: interviews and observation. The study included empirical two teachers from a state school and two teachers from a private school, all of a midsize city in São Paulo. The interviews showed that teachers of second grade of elementary school consider ADHD a neurological problem in order to be addressed, however, chose not to speak about the treatment carried out by drugs. The observations revealed that the discourse of these teachers are away from their practices, it is worth noting that the differences in these two situations studied - state and private network - are so disparate and interfere in this important teaching practice

Caracterização do desempenho de escolares com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem em tarefas de consciência fonológica

Learning to read and write at an early stage is the process of transferring the sound form of the spoken language for the graphical form of writing, a process, a time that in our system of alphabetical called writing, the letters are graphical representations in the level of phoneme. So that this representation occurs, it is necessary that the individual already can of some form perceive and manipulate the different sonorous segments of the word. This capacity of perception directed to the segments of the word calls Phonological Awareness. Thus, it was established had for objective to verify the pertaining to school performance of 1ª to 4ª series with and without of learning in Tests of Phonological Awareness. Fourth children with age average of 9 years and 3 months without learning disabilities had been submitted to the Protocol of Phonological Awareness (CIELO, 2002) using of this instrument had participated of this study 80 pertaining to school of both only the phonological tasks. The data received from quantiqualitative approach whose results were extracted inferences. The statistically significant results occurred in the tasks of Realism Face Detection, Syllables, Detecting Phonemes, Phonemic Synthesis and Reversal Phonemic. Based on the results we observed that children without learning difficulties performed better on all tasks mentioned above

Validação de um instrumento de triagem para identificação de filhos de alcoolistas, aplicável por pessoal não especializado

Pós-graduação em Saúde Coletiva - FMB

Potencial Cognitivo Auditivo e vectoeletronistagmografia em escolares com dislexia e distúrbios de aprendizagem

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Elementos psicomotores e fatores sociais relacionados ao desenvolvimento motor e dificuldades de aprendizagem em crianças ingressantes no ensino fundamental

In humans, psychic and motor skills are interdependent, and therefore, cannot fail to take into account the influence of a good psychomotor development in the prevention of learning difficulties. Another factor that interferes with the learning process is the social. Family problems, socioeconomic status of the child, among others, may be associated with learning difficulties and, consequently, the student's performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate through the elements of psychomotor, if a delay in neuropsychomotor development may be related to the presence of learning problems in children entering elementary school. Also, determine whether there were differences regarding the presence or absence of these difficulties in students from middle and low social class and have family problems or not. For this, we analyzed two classes of 49 students from 1 year of elementary education at a public school in the city of Bauru/SP, aged between 6 and 7 years. These students were tested for the ENE proposed by Lefèvre (1976) to assess the maturity of the nervous system. A pre-designed questionnaire was answered by the teachers of classes to know students' academic performance, learning difficulties presented by them, social status and the presence of family problems. All students participating in the survey had the term sheet signed by the parents, allowing participation in the study. To reach the results, we applied the Anova and Tukey test for comparison analysis of mean age in the performance of ENE. To investigate the existence of a relationship between performance in the ENE and learning difficulties, we used the calculation of Pearson correlation. To analyze the difference in average scores of learning disabilities in students from different social classes and among those who had family problems or not, comparative graphs were used with the averages obtained from the questionnaire answered by the teachers for each learning...

Dificuldades de aprendizagem no contexto escolar: perspectivas para sua compreensão e superação

Inside my participation in the Teacher Education for the Educational Service of Students with Learning Disabilities extension project, which serves elementary school students which are presented by the school as students with learning desabilities in reading and writing, and in view of the large amount of material already published in relation of this issue it is necessary theoretical depth to better understand these entitled desabilities. Considering as how they are perceived and diagnosed by the school team, worked in the context of the classroom, understood by the parents and how these difficulties intefere in the lives of these students. It is known that due to these difficulties many students end up producing a feeling of school failure, a fact that leads, in many cases, to the dropout of these students. Given the need to discuss such pressing issues I present as the goal of this paper: characterize what learning to write and reading difficulties really are and speculate what are the possibilities of educational interventions within the school context to motivate and assist in overcoming the students‟ learning difficulties. Using resources such as a record notebook, activities already implemented, and leaning on the concept of school failure and learning difficulties, the metodology of this study is defined as documentary literature

O professor como mediador da facilidade/dificuldade de aprendizagem do aluno

This study arose from many issues that permeated the undergraduate degree in Education about the role of schools in society, and how this, which also represents space and time, has influenced the lack of pleasure in learning of school students fundamental. Thus, we intend to review the context of the formal school emergence in Brazil, noting its social function and compare the changes in the initial model to the present day. The aim is also to analyze the writing of a group of students about school design, which was transferred by a teacher who participates in the Extension Project: Teacher Education for Specialized Educational Support Services to Students with Learning Disabilities in order to articulate the extent to which the school contributes to the feeling of not belonging student at school. It is a qualitative research, which was used initially on a review and written analysis procedure

Medicalização escolar e o processo normatizador da coação adulta: a era da palmatória química em uma sociedade hiperativa

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Effects of environmental complexity on neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus

Introduction. Postnatal neurogenesis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, can be modulated by numerous determinants, such as hormones, transmitters and stress. Among the factors positively interfering with neurogenesis, the complexity of the environment appears to play a particularly striking role. Adult mice reared in an enriched environment produce more neurons and exhibit better performance in hippocampus-specific learning tasks. While the effects of complex environments on hippocampal neurogenesis are well documented, there is a lack of information on the effects of living under socio-sensory deprivation conditions. Due to the immaturity of rats and mice at birth, studies dealing with the effects of environmental enrichment on hippocampal neurogenesis were carried out in adult animals, i.e. during a period of relatively low rate of neurogenesis. The impact of environment is likely to be more dramatic during the first postnatal weeks, because at this time granule cell production is remarkably higher than at later phases of development. The aim of the present research was to clarify whether and to what extent isolated or enriched rearing conditions affect hippocampal neurogenesis during the early postnatal period, a time window characterized by a high rate of precursor proliferation and to elucidate the mechanisms underlying these effects. The experimental model chosen for this research was the guinea pig, a precocious rodent, which, at 4-5 days of age can be independent from maternal care. Experimental design. Animals were assigned to a standard (control), an isolated, or an enriched environment a few days after birth (P5-P6). On P14-P17 animals received one daily bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) injection, to label dividing cells, and were sacrificed either on P18, to evaluate cell proliferation or on P45, to evaluate cell survival and differentiation. Methods. Brain sections were processed for BrdU immunhistochemistry, to quantify the new born and surviving cells. The phenotype of the surviving cells was examined by means of confocal microscopy and immunofluorescent double-labeling for BrdU and either a marker of neurons (NeuN) or a marker of astrocytes (GFAP). Apoptotic cell death was examined with the TUNEL method. Serial sections were processed for immunohistochemistry for i) vimentin, a marker of radial glial cells, ii) BDNF (brain-derived neurotrofic factor), a neurotrophin involved in neuron proliferation/survival, iii) PSA-NCAM (the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecule), a molecule associated with neuronal migration. Total granule cell number in the dentate gyrus was evaluated by stereological methods, in Nissl-stained sections. Results. Effects of isolation. In P18 isolated animals we found a reduced cell proliferation (-35%) compared to controls and a lower expression of BDNF. Though in absolute terms P45 isolated animals had less surviving cells than controls, they showed no differences in survival rate and phenotype percent distribution compared to controls. Evaluation of the absolute number of surviving cells of each phenotype showed that isolated animals had a reduced number of cells with neuronal phenotype than controls. Looking at the location of the new neurons, we found that while in control animals 76% of them had migrated to the granule cell layer, in isolated animals only 55% of the new neurons had reached this layer. Examination of radial glia cells of P18 and P45 animals by vimentin immunohistochemistry showed that in isolated animals radial glia cells were reduced in density and had less and shorter processes. Granule cell count revealed that isolated animals had less granule cells than controls (-32% at P18 and -42% at P45). Effects of enrichment. In P18 enriched animals there was an increase in cell proliferation (+26%) compared to controls and a higher expression of BDNF. Though in both groups there was a decline in the number of BrdU-positive cells by P45, enriched animals had more surviving cells (+63) and a higher survival rate than controls. No differences were found between control and enriched animals in phenotype percent distribution. Evaluation of the absolute number of cells of each phenotype showed that enriched animals had a larger number of cells of each phenotype than controls. Looking at the location of cells of each phenotype we found that enriched animals had more new neurons in the granule cell layer and more astrocytes and cells with undetermined phenotype in the hilus. Enriched animals had a higher expression of PSA-NCAM in the granule cell layer and hilus Vimentin immunohistochemistry showed that in enriched animals radial glia cells were more numerous and had more processes.. Granule cell count revealed that enriched animals had more granule cells than controls (+37% at P18 and +31% at P45). Discussion. Results show that isolation rearing reduces hippocampal cell proliferation but does not affect cell survival, while enriched rearing increases both cell proliferation and cell survival. Changes in the expression of BDNF are likely to contribute to he effects of environment on precursor cell proliferation. The reduction and increase in final number of granule neurons in isolated and enriched animals, respectively, are attributable to the effects of environment on cell proliferation and survival and not to changes in the differentiation program. As radial glia cells play a pivotal role in neuron guidance to the granule cell layer, the reduced number of radial glia cells in isolated animals and the increased number in enriched animals suggests that the size of radial glia population may change dynamically, in order to match changes in neuron production. The high PSA-NCAM expression in enriched animals may concur to favor the survival of the new neurons by facilitating their migration to the granule cell layer. Conclusions. By using a precocious rodent we could demonstrate that isolated/enriched rearing conditions, at a time window during which intense granule cell proliferation takes place, lead to a notable decrease/increase of total granule cell number. The time-course and magnitude of postnatal granule cell production in guinea pigs are more similar to the human and non-human primate condition than in rats and mice. Translation of current data to humans would imply that exposure of children to environments poor/rich of stimuli may have a notably large impact on dentate neurogenesis and, very likely, on hippocampus dependent memory functions.

Uso de textos musicales (canciones) en la enseñanza del inglés

[ES]El presente artículo de investigación tiene como objetivo principal evaluar cómo el uso de los textos musicales –canciones, como popularmente se conocen– influye en el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera. Una investigación llevada a cabo con estudiantes de una clase de 2º de ESO nos ha servido para confirmar las hipótesis que en un principio teníamos en lo concerniente a la adquisición de las ocho competencias básicas mediante tareas en las clases de lengua inglesa. Así, el diseño de rúbricas con unos criterios e instrumentos de evaluación específicos nos ha permitido evaluar el grado de adquisición de competencias básicas concretas. [EN]This paper focuses on the impact that the use of music texts –commonly referred to with the term ‘songs’– has on students in teaching English as a foreign language. Through a survey carried out with students of a 2nd year class of Spanish Secondary Education, our initial assumptions in terms of acquisition of key competences in English learning were validated. in acquiring specific key competences by using tasks, rubrics –consisting of detailed assessment criteria and tools– were designed and implemented as the assessment method in order for students to successfully attain specific learning objectives.

Current concepts in the pathogenesis of meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae

In spite of improved antimicrobial therapy, bacterial meningitis still results in brain damage leading to significant long-term neurological sequelae in a substantial number of survivors, as confirmed by several recent studies. Meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae is associated with a particularly severe outcome. Experimental studies over the past few years have increased our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the events that ultimately lead to brain damage during meningitis. Necrotic damage to the cerebral cortex is at least partly mediated by ischemia and oxygen radicals and therefore offers a promising target for adjunctive therapeutic intervention. Neuronal apoptosis in the hippocampus may represent the major pathological process responsible for cognitive impairment and learning disabilities in survivors. However, the mechanisms involved in causing this damage remain largely unknown. Anti-inflammatory treatment with corticosteroids aggravates hippocampal damage, thus underlining the potential shortcomings of current adjuvant strategies. In contrast, the combined inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase and tumour necrosis factor-alpha converting enzyme protected both the cortex and hippocampus in experimental meningitis, and may represent a promising new approach to adjunctive therapy. It is the hope that a more refined molecular understanding of the pathogenesis of brain damage during bacterial meningitis will lead to new adjunctive therapies.