Consciência fonológica refere-se à habilidade de refletir sobre a fonologia da linguagem. Sua relação com linguagem escrita é recíproca, ou seja, componentes simples da consciência fonológica auxiliam aquisição de habilidades iniciais de leitura e escrita que facilitam o desenvolvimento de componentes mais complexos e, assim, sucessivamente. Este estudo objetivou avaliar separadamente dez componentes da consciência fonológica em crianças de 1ª a 4ª série do ensino fundamental, verificando se há aumento com a escolarização e analisando sua correlação com nota escolar. Foi aplicada a Prova de Consciência Fonológica individualmente a 363 crianças. Os escores total e nos dez subtestes da prova aumentaram significativamente ao longo das séries, especialmente da 1a à 3a. A nota correlacionou-se com escore total em todas as séries, mas com diferentes subtestes ao longo das séries, havendo maior correlação com subtestes cada vez mais difíceis. Tais resultados corroboram a importância de avaliar separadamente componentes da consciência fonológica.

Executive functions (EF) and oral language (OL) are important for learning reading and writing (RW) and for the development of other skills in preschool. The study investigated the progression and the relationships between the performances in these competences in pre-schoolers. Participants were 90 children, mean age 4.91 years, students from Kindergarten years I and II of a private school in SP, assessed, individually, with a battery with nine instruments for EF, OL, and RW. There was increase of the performances as a result of educational level for all OL and RW measures, but only for attention in the field of EF. Significant correlations were found between the measurements assessing the same cognitive domain, as well as inter-domain, although portraying a different pattern. The results indicate that OL and RW seem to develop rapidly in the course of preschool, while the EF have slower development. The fields of OL and RW, EF and RW are more interdependent, and EF and OL are relatively independent. Keywords Funciones Ejecutivas, Lenguaje Oral y Escrito en los Niños en Edad Preescolar: Desarrollo y CorrelacionesResumen: Las funciones ejecutivas (FE), el lenguaje oral (LO) son importantes para aprender a leer y escribir (LE) y para el desarrollo de otras habilidades en el período preescolar. El estudio investigó la evolución y las relaciones entre los rendimientos en estas habilidades en los niños preescolares. Participó en 90 niños, edad promedio de 4,91 años, estudiantes del Jardín I y II de una escuela privada en SP, evaluadas, de forma individual, con una batería con nueve instrumentos para FE, LO, y LE. Hubo un aumento en el rendimiento en función del nivel educativo en todas las medidas de LO y LE, pero sólo en la medida de atención en FE. Se encontraron correlaciones significativas entre las medidas que evalúan el mismo dominio cognitivo, así como inter-dominio, a pesar de representar un patrón diferencial. LO y LE parecen desarrollarse rápidamente en el curso de la enseñanza preescolar, mientras que FE tiene un desarrollo más lento. Los campos LO y LE, FE y LE son más interdependientes; FE y LO son relativamente independientes.

Executive abilities have been suggested to show differential age-related changes. This study aimed to extend this evidence to a Brazilian sample, which was composed of 572 children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years, assessed in tests of visual and auditory working memory, selective attention, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, attentional abilities, verbal fluency and planning. ANOVAs revealed significant age effect on performance in all tests, with a trend toward better performance with the progression of age, even in differential ways. Overall, the performance on simpler tests, such as the basic attention, increased with age progression until around 11 or 12 years, when performance becomes more stable. However, in more complex tasks, including working memory tasks, the performance showed a more continuous improvement. There was gender effect in two measures: visual working memory, in which boys outperformed girls, and verbal fluency, in which the girls outperformed boys. In general, the results of this Brazilian sample were similar to those reported by studies conducted in other countries, what suggests that Brazilian socio-cultural specificities, at least of the participants of this sample, were not sufficient to reveal a distinct pattern of progression.

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Executive functions (EF) provide top-down control of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Such abilities are related to learning, emotional control, and adjustment. A promising line of research on EF examines early interventions to promote EF development; however, in developing countries, evidence of EF-related early interventions remains limited. In this study, 70 five-year-old preschool children and their four teachers were divided into an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). EG teachers were trained to administer the Intervention Program for Self-regulation and Executive Functions in a classroom context over four and a half months. All children were assessed with tests to measure EF at two time points: before and after the intervention period. EG children exhibited significant gains in attention and inhibition post-intervention. The results suggest that the intervention program is more effective at promoting EF development than the regular curriculum. This finding may have practical relevance to public politics in education, primarily in disadvantaged contexts, as in certain developing countries.

ResumoFunções executivas constituem um conjunto de processos cognitivos que permitem a regulação da cognição e do comportamento, possibilitando o engajamento do indivíduo em ações complexas. Essas habilidades estão comprometidas em uma diversidade de condições clínicas e este artigo teórico teve como objetivo oferecer uma revisão não-sistemática de alguns quadros nos quais estas habilidades apresentam-se prejudicadas, sobretudo em crianças e adolescentes. Verificou-se que condições como transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade, transtorno obsessivo-compulsivo, síndrome de Tourette, transtornos globais do desenvolvimento, transtornos de aprendizagem como a dislexia e a discalculia, além de alterações cromossômicas, como a síndrome de Down e de Prader-Willi, cursam com algum grau de comprometimento do funcionamento executivo. Este conhecimento tem implicações à prática e à pesquisa psicológica e pode ser útil a profissionais que atuam com crianças e adolescentes com alguma destas condições, contribuindo a um maior conhecimento acerca das funções executivas e suas alterações. Palavras-chave: funcionamento executivo, neuropsicologia, desenvolvimento. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS DAMAGE IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS AbstractExecutive functions are a set of cognitive skills that allows the cognition and the behavior regulation, enabling an individual to take part in complex actions. Those abilities are committed in a diversity of clinical conditions and this theoretical article aimed offer an unsystematic revision of some conditions in which these abilities are injured, especially in children and adolescents. It was verified that conditions as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder, Tourette Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Learning Disabilities, like as Dyslexia and Dyscalulia, beyond cromossomic alterations, as Down's and Prader-Willi Syndromes, follow with some degree of executive functioning compromise. This knowledge has implications to the psychological practice and research, and can be useful to professionals who act with children and adolescents with some of these conditions, contributing to a greater knowledge about executive functions and its damages.

This systematic review aimed to characterize empirical studies on neuropsychological interventions to stimulate executive functions in children with typical development. Searches were conducted according to the PRISMA method. Nineteen (19) studies on the analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention programs in pre-school and school children were obtained. There was a predominance of studies that used computerized cognitive training, most of them involving the stimulation of working memory. Others used pen and paper forms, or hybrid tasks, and some programs used a school curriculum approach aiming to improve self-regulation. Results provide preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of such on the executive performance in children with typical development. Each executive component, as well as each type of intervention has its peculiarities. Computerized trainings and pen and paper tasks tend to improve the targeted executive functions, but transfer effects are still inconsistent. Regarding the effects of programs using school curriculum approach, they seem to be more generalizable, with functionality gains accomplishing mainly socio-emotional regulation. Multimodal approaches may be even more effective. Follow-up studies should be targeted in order to track the maintenance of direct and transfer effects regarding mainly cognitive and social development associated to school achievement.

This study aimed to investigate if an executive functions (EF) intervention could promote these skills in individuals with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Eighteen children and adolescents, 7-13 years old, divided into experimental (EG, N = 8) and control (CG, N = 10) groups, were assessed in the Block Design and Vocabulary subtests of the WISC III and seven tests of EF. Parents answered two scales, measuring EF and inattention and hyperactivity signs. EG children participated in a program to promote EF in twice-weekly group sessions of one hour each. After 8 months of intervention, groups were assessed again. ANCOVA, controlling for age, intelligence quotient and pretest performance, revealed gains in attention/inhibition and auditory working memory measures for the EG. No effect was found for scales or measures of more complex EF. Results are not conclusive, but they illustrate some promising data about EF interventions in children and adolescents with ADHD.Keywords: regulation, intervention, executive function, inattention. RESUMOEste estudo investigou se uma intervenção para funções executivas (FE) pode promover essas habilidades em indivíduos com transtorno do déficit de atenção e hiperatividade (TDAH). Participaram 18 crianças e adolescentes, 7-13 anos, divididos em Grupo Experimental (GE, N = 8) e Controle (GC, N = 10), avaliados nos subtestes Blocos e Vocabulário do WISC III e sete testes de FE. Pais responderam a duas escalas mensurando FE e sintomas de desatenção e hiperatividade. As crianças do GE participaram de um programa de promoção de FE, em sessões de grupo de uma hora cada, duas vezes por semana. Após intervenção de oito meses, os grupos foram reavaliados. ANCOVA, controlando idade, QI e desempenho no pré-teste, revelou ganhos da intervenção em medidas de atenção/inibição e memória de trabalho auditiva para o GE. Nenhum efeito foi encontrado para as escalas ou medidas de FE mais complexas. Os resultados não são conclusivos, mas ilustram tendências promissoras sobre intervenções em FE em crianças e adolescentes com TDAH.Palavras-chave: regulação, intervenção, função executiva, desatenção.Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder that tends to persist for many years or entire lives. It is characterized as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity/impulsivity that is more frequent and severe than is typically observed in individuals at a comparable level of development 1 . Studies have sought to understand possible impairments associated with ADHD symptoms, which can be useful for the diagnosis of the disorder and for rehabilitation of deficit areas. In this sense, important neuropsychological processes have been implicated in ADHD, including executive functions (EF) 2 . EF are responsible for top-down control of cognition, behaviors, and emotions. Core EF include inhibition (the ability to control an automatic or prepotent response and to control one's attention and thoughts), flexibility (the capacity to change the foc...