Criar uma idiocultura para promover o desenvolvimento de crianças com paralisia cerebral

This study presents the preliminary results of the adaptation of an educational system called the Fifth Dimension (5D), in which social interaction is a means for generalizing information and a basis for the development of skills beyond the constituent tasks. Originally created by Michael Cole - Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) - this system was, for the first time, applied to a rehabilitation setting with children with brain injury, at the SARAH Network of Neurorehabilitation Hospitals, in Brazil. Undergraduate college students majoring in psychology and education participate in the program and interact with children who have cerebral palsy, engaging in playful/educational activities of collaborative learning. While interacting with the child, the student is encouraged to put formal theoretical concepts and personal experience into practice. In this article, we describe the changes made to the original program to adapt it to the rehabilitation setting as well as the artefacts that mediate the activity, necessary for the interaction and expression of the child with cerebral palsy. Also discussed and presented are the effects of the activity on the child's development - based on the parents' reports - and the impact on the learning process of the undergraduate students. The program opens alternative pathways for a reflection on, and education of, the child with brain injury, based on the development of individual potential, context and interests.Este estudo apresenta os resultados preliminares da adaptação de um sistema educacional, chamado Quinta Dimensão, no qual a interação social é um meio para a generalização da informação e base para o desenvolvimento de habilidades. Foi criado originalmente por Michael Cole no Laboratório de Cognição Humana Comparada, Universidade da Califórnia, San Diego, e pela primeira vez é aplicado em um contexto de reabilitação com crianças com lesão cerebral na Rede SARAH de Neurorreabilitação, Brasília. Alunos de graduação em psicologia e pedagogia participam do programa e interagem de maneira lúdica e educativa com crianças com paralisia cerebral. Ambos são envolvidos em atividades de aprendizagem colaborativa. Na interação com a criança, os alunos são encorajados a colocar em prática conceitos teóricos formais e, também, vivências individuais. Resultados indicam efeitos positivos sobre o desenvolvimento da criança e aprendizagem do aluno de graduação e mostram caminhos alternativos na educação da criança deficiente. Neste artigo, descrevemos as alterações feitas no programa original para adaptá-lo à reabilitação configurada, assim como os artefatos que medeiam a atividade, necessário para a interação e expressão da criança com paralisia cerebral. Também são discutidos e apresentados os efeitos da atividade sobre o desenvolvimento da criança - com base em relatórios dos pais - e do impacto sobre o processo de aprendizagem dos alunos de graduação. O programa abre caminhos alternativos para uma reflexão sobre e educação da criança com lesão cerebral, com base no desenvolvimento do potencial individual, o contexto e os interesses

Criar uma idiocultura para promover o desenvolvimento de crianças com paralisia cerebral

This study presents the preliminary results of the adaptation of an educational system called the Fifth Dimension (5D), in which social interaction is a means for generalizing information and a basis for the development of skills beyond the constituent tasks. Originally created by Michael Cole - Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) - this system was, for the first time, applied to a rehabilitation setting with children with brain injury, at the SARAH Network of Neurorehabilitation Hospitals, in Brazil. Undergraduate college students majoring in psychology and education participate in the program and interact with children who have cerebral palsy, engaging in playful/educational activities of collaborative learning. While interacting with the child, the student is encouraged to put formal theoretical concepts and personal experience into practice. In this article, we describe the changes made to the original program to adapt it to the rehabilitation setting as well as the artefacts that mediate the activity, necessary for the interaction and expression of the child with cerebral palsy. Also discussed and presented are the effects of the activity on the child's development - based on the parents' reports - and the impact on the learning process of the undergraduate students. The program opens alternative pathways for a reflection on, and education of, the child with brain injury, based on the development of individual potential, context and interests.Este estudo apresenta os resultados preliminares da adaptação de um sistema educacional, chamado Quinta Dimensão, no qual a interação social é um meio para a generalização da informação e base para o desenvolvimento de habilidades. Foi criado originalmente por Michael Cole no Laboratório de Cognição Humana Comparada, Universidade da Califórnia, San Diego, e pela primeira vez é aplicado em um contexto de reabilitação com crianças com lesão cerebral na Rede SARAH de Neurorreabilitação, Brasília. Alunos de graduação em psicologia e pedagogia participam do programa e interagem de maneira lúdica e educativa com crianças com paralisia cerebral. Ambos são envolvidos em atividades de aprendizagem colaborativa. Na interação com a criança, os alunos são encorajados a colocar em prática conceitos teóricos formais e, também, vivências individuais. Resultados indicam efeitos positivos sobre o desenvolvimento da criança e aprendizagem do aluno de graduação e mostram caminhos alternativos na educação da criança deficiente. Neste artigo, descrevemos as alterações feitas no programa original para adaptá-lo à reabilitação configurada, assim como os artefatos que medeiam a atividade, necessário para a interação e expressão da criança com paralisia cerebral. Também são discutidos e apresentados os efeitos da atividade sobre o desenvolvimento da criança - com base em relatórios dos pais - e do impacto sobre o processo de aprendizagem dos alunos de graduação. O programa abre caminhos alternativos para uma reflexão sobre e educação da criança com lesão cerebral, com base no desenvolvimento do potencial individual, o contexto e os interesses

Cognitive consequences of early phase of literacy.

The effect of the degree of illiteracy (complete or incomplete) on phonological skills, verbal and visual memory and visuospatial skills is examined in 97 normal Brazilian adults who considered themselves illiterate, and 41 Brazilian school children aged 7 to 8 years, either nonreaders or beginning readers. Similar literacy effects were observed in children and in adults. Tasks involving phonological awareness and visual recognition memory of nonsense figures distinguish the best nonreaders and beginning readers. Children performed better than adults at oral repetition of short items and figure recall, and adults better than children at semantic verbal fluency, digit span, and word list recall. A principal component analysis of the correlations between tasks showed that phonological awareness/reading, phonological memory/oral repetition, and semantic verbal memory/fluency tasks, generated different components. The respective role of culturally based preschool activities and literacy on the cognitive functions that are explored in this study is discussed

Kinematic recordings while performing a modified version of the Halstead Finger Tapping Test: Age, sex, and education effects

Introduction: This study attempts to demonstrate that kinematic recordings of finger movements help explain the well-known effects of age, education, and sex on the Halstead Finger Tapping Test (HFTT). Method: High-speed kinematic recordings were obtained on 107 healthy adults (ages 21 to 80 years) while they performed a modified version of the Halstead Finger Tapping Test (HFTT). The number of “valid” taps and “invalid” taps (i.e., lever movements that did not produce an increase in the mechanical number count), tapping speed variability, “learning” and “fatigue” effects was obtained. Results: Previous age, education, and sex effects were replicated. Males had faster start and stop times when finger tapping and these measures correlated with the number of valid taps per 10 s. Educational level correlated with start times, not stop times. Age correlated only with the number of valid taps. Variability of tapping movements correlated with the number of invalid taps, but not valid taps. Females had more invalid taps than males. Fatigue and learning effects were independent of the person’s age, education, and sex. Conclusion: Kinematic recordings of finger tapping help explain the well-known age, education, and sex effects on finger tapping speeds. A modified method of administrating the HFTT is also introduced to assess fatigue and learning effects while performing this task

Inhibitory control of adjacent finger movements while performing a modified version of the halstead finger tapping test: Effects of age, education and sex

Objective: Selective motor inhibition is known to decline with age. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of failures at inhibitory control of adjacent finger movements while performing a repetitive finger tapping task in young, middle-aged and older adults. Potential education and sex effects were also evaluated. Methods: Kinematic recordings of adjacent finger movements were obtained on 107 healthy adults (ages 20-80) while they performed a modified version of the Halstead Finger Tapping Test (HTFF). Study participants were instructed to inhibit all finger movements while tapping with the index finger. Results: Inability to inhibit adjacent finger movements while performing the task was infrequent in young adults (2.9% of individuals between 20 and 39 years of age) but increased with age (23.3% between the ages of 40 and 59; 31.0% between ages 60 and 80). Females and males did not differ in their inability to inhibit adjacent finger movements, but individuals with a college education showed a lower frequency of failure to inhibit adjacent finger movements (10.3%) compared to those with a high school education (28.6%). These findings were statistically significant only for the dominant hand. Conclusion: Selective motor inhibition failures are most common in the dominant hand and occur primarily in older healthy adults while performing the modified version of the HFTT. Monitoring selective motor inhibition failures may have diagnostic significance