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

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

Habilidades perceptivas visuais e qualidade de escrita de escolares com dislexia

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to characterize and compare the visual perceptual skills and writing quality of students with dyslexia, with good academic performance, and to relate the perceptual visual motor skills and the writing quality of students with dyslexia, with good academic performance. METHODS: 40 students participated in this study; 35 males and 5 females, from 8 to 11 years and 11 months, who attended from the 3rd to 5th grade level of public municipal schools of Marília-SP, divided into two groups: Group I (GI) comprised 20 students with interdisciplinar diagnoses of dyslexia, and Group II (GII) comprised 20 students with good academic performance. The Visual Perceptual Skills Test - TVPS-3 and the Disgraphy Scale were applied. RESULTS: The results obtained from this study showed that the students with dyslexia presented difficulties in visual skills concerning discrimination and memory. Besides discrimination and memory skills, it was observed inferior performance concerning the relation visual spacial skills and steady form, and inferior performance in all the visual skills, when compared to the chronological age. However, the group of students with good academic performance has also presented inferior performance concerning the relation visual spacial skills and steady form. CONCLUSIONS: The study mentions that maybe schools do not invest sufficiently in activities which envolve visual experiences necessary for the enhancement of reading and writing. Although statistically significant difference was not observed between the groups concerning disgraphy, it iwas possible to observe that a higher amount of students presented disgraphy.

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

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Collaborative language learning in Teletandem: a resource for pre-service teacher education

This article presents some of the results of a qualitative research project about the influences of the pedagogic strategies used by a mediator (graduate student in applied linguistics) in the supervision process of a Teletandem partner (undergraduate student in languages) on her pedagogical practice. It was done within the project Teletandem Brazil: foreign language for all. Based on the reflective teaching paradigm and collaborative language learning, with special emphasis on tandem learning, we analyzed the contributions of the collaborative relationship established between the graduate student and the student-teacher in her first teaching experience. The results bring about implications for the field of language teacher education in a perspective of education within practice, evidencing the experience of collaborative learning in teletandem as an opportunity for reflective teacher education of pre-service teachers.

A formação inicial de professores e a cultura científica na educação básica: problematizando a prática docente na interface das disciplinas estágio supervisionado e história da física

Pós-graduação em Educação para a Ciência - FC

Formação inicial docente: o estágio como espaço de aprendizagens

The study presented here aimed to understand how the traineeship supervisor can act for this moment to be a valuable learning for future teachers, with a view to her operations to expand the knowledge of students. For this, we analyzed the pedagogical actions that occurred during the supervised training of a pedagogy course at a public university situated in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Supported in qualitative research this investigation shows that the supervisory actions, in the view of interns, favored teacher education: respect for the supervisor to people; her orientation to the importance of reflecting on aspects recognized as negative, her help in the preparation of interdisciplinary lesson plan and the need for a flexible lesson plan; her presence in moments of interventions; feedback given and appreciation of the role of the educator in the teaching / learning.

Contradições no uso de tecnologias em contexto de estágio de um curso de Letras: o professor de inglês em formação inicial no ensino superior

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

Auditory evoked potential: a proposal for further evaluation in children with learning disabilities

The information presented in this paper demonstrates the author's experience in previews cross-sectional studies conducted in Brazil, in comparison with the current literature. Over the last 10 years, auditory evoked potential (AEP) has been used in children with learning disabilities. This method is critical to analyze the quality of the processing in time and indicates the specific neural demands and circuits of the sensorial and cognitive process in this clinical population. Some studies with children with dyslexia and learning disabilities were shown here to illustrate the use of AEP in this population.

Interações discursiva e o uso de analogias no ensino de física

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Desempenho de crianças com deficiência auditiva e implante coclear em tarefas de seleção de e de nomeação de figuras

The aim of this study was to investigate the development of specific domains of Numerical Cognition (Number Sense – NS, Number Comprehension – NC, Number Production – NP, and Calculation – CA) in Brazilian children with Specific Learning Disorders. The study included 72 children (36 boys), from 9-to 10-years-old, enrolled in 4th and 5th years of elementary school of public schools at countryside of Sao Paulo State, Brazil. They were divided into three groups: control (CT, N = 42), Developmental Dyslexia (DL, N = 11) and Developmental Dyscalculia combined with dyslexia (DDc, N = 19). All participants had intellectual level within the normal range, however, children from the last two groups had Learning Disorders classified by School Achievement Test - TDE (Stein, 1994) and DDc children received necessarily classification as 'inferior' in Arithmetic Test of TDE. The children did not differ in NS. DL and DDc children showed slight deficits in NC. However, DDc children had moderate in NP and mild to moderate deficits in CA, which indicates a more generalized impairment in Numerical Cognition. Furthermore, DDc children showed discrepancy in Numerical Cognition performance when compared to the other groups. Thus, children with Learning Disorders showed different performances in Numerical Cognition, although both groups had preserved SN, DDc children showed higher deficits and discrepancy in relation DL and typically developing children.

Imaginário e estratégias didáticas: análise das atividades desenvolvidas por um licenciando em Física durante o Estágio Curricular Supervisionado

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Effetto crowding e dislessia evolutiva: un confronto inter e intra-linguistico

Crowding is defined as the negative effect obtained by adding visual distractors around a central target which has to be identified. Some studies have suggested the presence of a marked crowding effect in developmental dyslexia (e.g. Atkinson, 1991; Spinelli et al., 2002). Inspired by Spinelli’s (2002) experimental design, we explored the hypothesis that the crowding effect may affect dyslexics’ response times (RTs) and accuracy in identification tasks dealing with words, pseudowords, illegal non-words and symbolstrings. Moreover, our study aimed to clarify the relationship between the crowding phenomenon and the word-reading process, in an inter-language comparison perspective. For this purpose we studied twenty-two French dyslexics and twenty-two Italian dyslexics (total forty-four dyslexics), compared to forty-four subjects matched for reading level (22 French and 22 Italians) and forty-four chronological age-matched subjects (22 French and 22 Italians). Children were all tested on reading and cognitive abilities. Results showed no differences between French and Italian participants suggesting that performances were homogenous. Dyslexic children were all significantly impaired in words and pseudowords reading compared to their normal reading controls. Regarding the identification task with which we assessed crowding effect, both accuracy and RTs showed a lexicality effect which meant that the recognition of words was more accurate and faster in words than pseudowords, non-words and symbolstrings. Moreover, compared to normal readers, dyslexics’ RTs and accuracy were impaired only for verbal materials but not for non-verbal material; these results are in line with the phonological hypothesis (Griffiths & Snowling, 2002; Snowling, 2000; 2006) . RTs revealed a general crowding effect (RTs in the crowding condition were slower than those recorded in the isolated condition) affecting all the subjects’ performances. This effect, however, emerged to be not specific for dyslexics. Data didn’t reveal a significant effect of language, allowing the generalization of the obtained results. We also analyzed the performance of two subgroups of dyslexics, categorized according to their reading abilities. The two subgroups produced different results regarding the crowding effect and type of material, suggesting that it is meaningful to take into account also the heterogeneity of the dyslexia disorder. Finally, we also analyzed the relationship of the identification task with both reading and cognitive abilities. In conclusion, this study points out the importance of comparing visual tasks performances of dyslexic participants with those of their reading level-matched controls. This approach may improve our comprehension of the potential causal link between crowding and reading (Goswami, 2003).

Studio di ausili tecnologici compensativi di supporto all'iter di apprendimento matematico secondario e universitario degli studenti con dislessia

Data coming out from various researches carried out over the last years in Italy on the problem of school dispersion in secondary school show that difficulty in studying mathematics is one of the most frequent reasons of discomfort reported by students. Nevertheless, it is definitely unrealistic to think we can do without such knowledge in today society: mathematics is largely taught in secondary school and it is not confined within technical-scientific courses only. It is reasonable to say that, although students may choose academic courses that are, apparently, far away from mathematics, all students will have to come to terms, sooner or later in their life, with this subject. Among the reasons of discomfort given by the study of mathematics, some mention the very nature of this subject and in particular the complex symbolic language through which it is expressed. In fact, mathematics is a multimodal system composed by oral and written verbal texts, symbol expressions, such as formulae and equations, figures and graphs. For this, the study of mathematics represents a real challenge to those who suffer from dyslexia: this is a constitutional condition limiting people performances in relation to the activities of reading and writing and, in particular, to the study of mathematical contents. Here the difficulties in working with verbal and symbolic codes entail, in turn, difficulties in the comprehension of texts from which to deduce operations that, once combined together, would lead to the problem final solution. Information technologies may support this learning disorder effectively. However, these tools have some implementation limits, restricting their use in the study of scientific subjects. Vocal synthesis word processors are currently used to compensate difficulties in reading within the area of classical studies, but they are not used within the area of mathematics. This is because the vocal synthesis (or we should say the screen reader supporting it) is not able to interpret all that is not textual, such as symbols, images and graphs. The DISMATH software, which is the subject of this project, would allow dyslexic users to read technical-scientific documents with the help of a vocal synthesis, to understand the spatial structure of formulae and matrixes, to write documents with a technical-scientific content in a format that is compatible with main scientific editors. The system uses LaTex, a text mathematic language, as mediation system. It is set up as LaTex editor, whose graphic interface, in line with main commercial products, offers some additional specific functions with the capability to support the needs of users who are not able to manage verbal and symbolic codes on their own. LaTex is translated in real time into a standard symbolic language and it is read by vocal synthesis in natural language, in order to increase, through the bimodal representation, the ability to process information. The understanding of the mathematic formula through its reading is made possible by the deconstruction of the formula itself and its “tree” representation, so allowing to identify the logical elements composing it. Users, even without knowing LaTex language, are able to write whatever scientific document they need: in fact the symbolic elements are recalled by proper menus and automatically translated by the software managing the correct syntax. The final aim of the project, therefore, is to implement an editor enabling dyslexic people (but not only them) to manage mathematic formulae effectively, through the integration of different software tools, so allowing a better teacher/learner interaction too.

Analisi di “Copy Number Variants” ed identificazione di nuovi geni candidati per l’Autismo e Ritardo Mentale

I disturbi dello spettro autistico (DSA) ed il ritardo mentale (RM) sono caratterizzati da un’eziologia genetica complessa ed eterogenea. Grazie ai recenti sviluppi nella ricerca genomica, è stato possibile dimostrare il ruolo di numerose copy number variants (CNVs) nella patogenesi di questi disturbi, anche se nella maggior parte dei casi l’eziologia rimane ancora sconosciuta. Questo lavoro riguarda l’identificazione e la caratterizzazione dei CNVs in famiglie con DSA e RM. E’ stata studiata una microdelezione in 7q31 che coinvolge i geni IMMP2L e DOCK4, trasmessa dalla madre con dislessia a due figli con autismo ed una figlia con dislessia. Nella stessa famiglia segrega una seconda microdelezione in 2q14 che inattiva il gene CNTNAP5 ed è trasmessa dal padre (con tratti autistici) ai due figli con autismo. Abbiamo quindi ipotizzato che i geni DOCK4 e CNTNAP5 potessero essere implicati, rispettivamente, nella suscettibilità a dislessia e DSA. Lo screening di numerosi individui affetti ha supportato la nostra ipotesi, con l’identificazione di una nuova microdelezione di DOCK4 che segrega con la dislessia, e 3 nuove varianti missenso in CNTNAP5 in individui con autismo. Dall’analisi genomica comparativa su array (aCGH) di individui con RM, è stata identificata una delezione nella regione 7q31.32, che coinvolge il gene CADPS2, in due fratelli con RM e tratti autistici, probabilmente ereditata dalla madre. Lo screening di mutazione di questo gene in individui con autismo o RM, ha portato all’identificazione di 3 varianti non sinonime, assenti nei controlli, ed ereditate per via materna. Poiché CADPS2 risiede in una regione genomica che contiene loci soggetti ad imprinting, abbiamo ipotizzato che il gene CADPS2 possa essere anch’esso caratterizzato da imprinting, con espressione monoallelica materna. Lo studio di espressione di CADPS2 in cellule del sangue ha avvalorato questa ipotesi, implicando perciò CADPS2 come un nuovo gene di suscettibilità per il RM e DSA.

Progettualità e interventi educativi nella dislessia. Il progetto ProDSA e le prospettive future di ricerca.

Il presente lavoro è strutturato in quattro parti analizzando e comparando le pubblicazioni del settore scientifico italiano, anglofono e tedesco di riferimento. Nel primo capitolo della tesi viene proposta una riflessione sulle parole che ruotano attorno al tema dei DSA e della disabilità. Nel secondo capitolo vengono presentati, a partire dalla letteratura scientifica di riferimento, gli indicatori di rischio che segnalano possibili disturbi specifici di apprendimento e le caratteristiche di apprendimento dei DSA mettendo in luce potenzialità e talenti spesso intrinseci. Nel terzo capitolo viene vagliata la normativa di riferimento, in particolare la recente Legge 170/2010 e le relative Linee Guida. Nel quarto capitolo, partendo dal tema della diffusione delle tecnologie dell’informazione e della comunicazione (da ora in poi TIC) nel mondo della scuola, sono ampiamente trattati i principali strumenti compensativi (sintesi vocale, libri digitali, mappe concettuali, Lavagna Interattiva Multimediale) e le misure dispensative adottabili. Nel quinto capitolo viene analizzato in tutte le sue parti il Piano Didattico Personalizzato (da ora in poi PDP) e viene proposto un possibile modello di PDP pubblicato sul sito dell'Ufficio per l’Ambito Territoriale di Bologna. Nel sesto capitolo della tesi viene presentato il Progetto Regionale ProDSA. Il Progetto, rivolto a studenti, con diagnosi di DSA, delle scuole secondarie di primo grado e del primo biennio delle secondarie di secondo grado dell’Emilia-Romagna, ha visto, grazie a un finanziamento della Regione, la consegna in comodato d'uso gratuito di tecnologie compensative agli alunni che hanno aderito. La sezione empirica del presente lavoro indaga l’uso reale che è stato fatto degli strumenti proposti in comodato d’uso e le motivazioni legate alla scelta di non utilizzarli in classe. Nel settimo capitolo vengono proposti strumenti progettati per rispondere concretamente alle criticità emerse dall'analisi dei dati e per sensibilizzare il mondo della scuola sulle caratteristiche dei DSA.