Tais de Lima Ferreira

Desempenho de escolares bons leitores, com dislexia e com transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade em nomeação automática rápida

PURPOSE: To characterize the performance of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia in rapid automatized naming and to compare it to the performance of children whose reading ability is considered to be in accordance to age and schooling. METHODS: A number of 30 students aged 8 to 12 years old attending 2nd to 4th grades in a public school participated in this study, divided into three groups, one formed by students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, another one formed by students with dyslexia, and the other formed by students with good academic performance. RESULTS: The results revealed statistically significant differences, evidencing superior performance of the control group when compared to both the group of students with attention deficit and hyperactivity and the group with dyslexia in the subtests of colors, digit span, letters and objects. The results also revealed superior performance of the group of students with attention deficit compared to the group with dyslexia in rapid automatized naming. CONCLUSION: Good readers showed better performance when compared to both students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, showing that this ability can be a prerequisite to reading development.

Diferença entre span verbal e visual nos gêneros: estudo piloto

OBJETIVO: avaliar a memoria de trabalho analisando a capacidade de retencao de estimulos auditivos (span verbal) e visuais (span visual) e estabelecer a relacao com o genero (masculino e feminino). METODO: participaram deste estudo 20 criancas entre seis anos e cinco meses e sete anos, sendo 10 sujeitos do sexo masculino e 10 sujeitos do sexo feminino. Todos os sujeitos foram submetidos as provas de avaliacao do span verbal e visual em ordem direta e inversa. RESULTADOS: apenas na prova de palavras dissilabas com fonologia semelhante e semântica diferente do span verbal, houve variância significante entre os generos. As criancas do sexo feminino apresentaram melhor desempenho em relacao ao outro genero, bem como maior capacidade de retencao de palavras dissilabas com fonologia e semântica diferentes. No span visual (ordem direta e inversa) as criancas do sexo masculino obtiveram melhor desempenho, apesar de nao ter diferencas significantes. Em relacao a idade nao houve diferenca de retencao de estimulos. CONCLUSAO: as criancas do sexo feminino, neste estudo, apresentaram tendencia a melhor desempenho do span verbal e as criancas do sexo masculino tendencia a melhor desempenho no span visual. No entanto, o estudo e limitado devido ao reduzido numero de participantes na amostra.

Development and applications of the SWAN rating scale for assessment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a literature review

This study reviewed the use of the Strengths and Weaknesses of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity-symptoms and Normal-behaviors (SWAN) rating scale in diagnostic and evolutive approaches to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and in correlational studies of the disorder. A review of articles published in indexed journals from electronic databases was conducted and 61 articles on the SWAN scale were analyzed. From these, 27 were selected to a) examine use of SWAN in research on attention disorders and b) verify evidence of its usefulness in the areas of genetics, neuropsychology, diagnostics, psychiatric comorbidities, neuroimaging, pharmacotherapy, and to examine its statistical reliability and validity in studies of diverse populations. This review of articles indicated a growing use of the SWAN scale for diagnostic purposes, for therapy, and in research on areas other than ADHD, especially when compared with other reliable scales. Use of the scale in ADHD diagnosis requires further statistical testing to define its psychometric properties.

Nomeação Automática Rápida em escolares de 6 e 7 anos

Purpose: to evaluate the speed of RAN in 6 to 7-year- schoolchildren (1st year of elementary school) and evaluate the difference in Rapid Automatized Naming subtests of colors, letters, numbers and objects. Methods: 30 children from the 1st year of public elementary schools were evaluated. Results: indicate significant differences for all tests of colors and letters between the ages. In other sub tests there were no significant differences between digits and objects. We notice that the average perfor mance among the four subtests indicated that the speed of RAN was better among 7 year-old children. Conclusion: the results point to the need of establishing the relationship between the language skills and reading and writing skills for the early identification of the direct impact of rapid automatized naming changes in the literacy process.