The aim of this paper is to present the results of an intervention program based in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to train academic skills in children with school failure problems. In the current research, training programs successfully applied to 1st and 2nd school year children were used to train three children attending the 4th school year. An evaluation before and after the intervention with ABA techniques was carried on using WISC-III Arithmetics Sub-test and tests of the Distema Method, including a Dyslexia identification test. Results showed advances in Verbal Comprehension, Orthography and Arithmetics in all children. All applied evaluation tests showed similar results. Results obtained in Portugal with younger children were replicated. As a conclusion, it is stressed thar intervention programs based on ABA seem to increase academic performance of children with school failure problems.

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The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the quality and speed of handwriting and the process characteristics of the handwriting of children in the second grade of elementary school considered as a function of age and gender. A sample of 57 children (mean age 7.25 years, SD 0.43) participated in the study. The Concise Assessment Method for Children’s Handwriting (BHK) was used to assess the quality and speed of handwriting. The characteristics of the process of handwriting were assessed using MovAlyzeR® software. The handwriting of boys showed a significantly greater number of strokes and slanted more to the right than the handwriting of girls. Handwriting quality and speed significantly correlated with several process characteristics: the number of strokes, reaction time, duration, relative pen-down duration, average pen pressure, vertical size, horizontal size, road length, and average absolute velocity. This research contributes to the construction of normative values in the process characteristics of the handwriting of elementary school children and provides a promising step towards the early identification of difficulties that can lead to dysgraphia, thus preventing later difficulties in handwriting.