A B S T R A C TThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional program in Spanish to improve reading comprehension, LEE comprensivamente. The program's framework was based on targeting text level processes, in particular, inference making, meta-cognitive control, and knowledge of text structure. In addition, a word level process, such as vocabulary, was also trained. The program, which consisted of 16 80-minute sessions during a period of 8 weeks, was tested on 127 children of ages 8-10 from different schools in Buenos Aires. A parallel group remained as passive control in each class group. Assessing processes included vocabulary, monitoring, inference making, and reading comprehension general measures, before and after the intervention. Only the intervention group showed a statistically significant improvement. These findings suggest that interventions focused on skills related to vocabulary, inference making, monitoring, and the knowledge of text structure improve reading comprehension in a school setting.

La detección temprana de los lectores con dificultad es fundamental para la implementación de programas de remediación.En Latinoamérica hay pocas herramientas para evaluar las habilidades prelectoras.  La velocidad de denominación y la conciencia fonológica son considerados los principales predictores de la lectura. El objetivo de este trabajo fue adaptar al español la prueba RAN/RAS publicada por Wolf y Denkla (Wolf y Denkla, 2005) y determinar la correlación con las medidas de denominación con las de lectura entre preescolar y 3ro de la Escuela Primaria. Para ello se evaluó a 142 niños de entre 5 y 8 años en tareas de denominación, conciencia fonológica, segmentación fonémica, lectura de letras, lectura de palabras, lectura de pseudopalabras y comprensión de textos de acuerdo al año que cursaban. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que la velocidad de denominación es un buen predictor de la lectura y que correlaciona con medidas de fluidez y precisión. Estos resultados confirman que su normalización en la población latinoamericana sería de gran utilidad para la detección temprana de niños en riesgo.

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Executive functions are a set of psychological processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior: selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of certain goals. These skills are necessary to guide learning of new information. Core executive function (CEF) are inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. They regulate and control other skills and behaviors, and also have influence on more basic skills such as attention, memory systems, and praxis. Executive functions allow setting goals and carrying them out through planning and monitoring, keeping inhibited thoughts, behaviors and emotions that interfere. This research consists of determining neuropsychological EF profiles in different clinical populations evaluated with tablet-based test. Two batteries developed by CEDETI UC were applied: Yellow Red and TENI (Infant Neuropsychological Assessment Test). The sample consists of 175 argentine children, between 7 and 12 years old, divided in two groups, clinical and control. The obtained scores show the importance of distinguishing profiles between these three CEF within the clinical population comparing with a typical developing group. The overall index obtained differentiates the groups best. Children with dyscalculia, autistic spectrum disorder and borderline intellectual disability obtain significantly lower scores having greater difficulties in EF.