Programa de intervención, para fortalecer funciones cognitivas y lingüísticas, adaptado al currículo escolar en niños en riesgo por pobreza / Intervention program to strengthen cognitive and linguistic functions adapted to the school curricula in children at risk by poverty

RESUMEN

En los últimos años las investigaciones sobre la pobreza y su impacto en el desarrollo cognitivo y emocional se han incrementado notoriamente. Estudios previos han indicado que el vivir en la pobreza influye en el desarrollo cognitivo y socioemocional de los niños y en su desempeño en tests cognitivos. El trabajo que se informa tiene como propósito presentar el diseño de estrategias de intervención y su implementación a través de su integración al currículo escolar, para fortalecer recursos cognitivos y lingüísticos en niños que se encuentran en situación de riesgo por pobreza extrema. Se trabajó con una muestra de 98 niños de 6 años de edad, de ambos sexos, residentes en la ciudad de Paraná (Provincia de Entre Ríos - República Argentina) que se dividió en grupo experimental en riesgo con intervención (n = 55) y grupo control sin riesgo (n = 43). Se administraron los siguientes instrumentos dentro del ámbito escolar (1) Test Breve de Inteligencia de Kaufman (KBIT - Kaufman, A.S. & Kaufman, N.L., 2000), (2) Prueba de Escritura de Palabras (Borzone & Diuk, 2001), (3) Test de Emparejamiento de Figuras Conocidas (MFFT20) y (4) la adaptación de la Tarea Tipo Stroop Sol - Luna (Archibald & Kerns, 1999). Los resultados indican diferencias significativas antes de la intervención y según el riesgo social, en cuanto a las habilidades intelectuales, el desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica, el estilo cognitivo reflexividad - impulsividad (R - I) y la capacidad atencional. Los datos posteriores a la intervención muestran progresos altamente significativos en los procesos cognitivos y lingüísticos, lo que permite inferir que las estrategias utilizadas son adecuadas para el trabajo con niños en riesgo por pobreza y son pertinentes a la tarea educativa debido a la fácil adecuación de las mismas al contenido curricular.

ABSTRACT

In recent past years, studies on poverty and its impact upon cognitive and emotional development have increased notoriously. A number of works have shown how living in poverty leads to deficits in children's cognitive and socio-emotional development and to a lower performance in cognitive tests. The aim of this work is to present the design of intervention strategies and their implementation integrated to the school curriculum, in order to strengthen cognitive and linguistic resources in children at risk due to extreme poverty. Based on these considerations, we present an intervention programme which aims at favouring emotional and cognitive development by means of adaptation of strategies to school curriculum, so that the latter may adjust itself to the needs of infant population in conditions of social vulnerability. Among other things, it is necessary to emphasize on the development of phonological conscience, ascribable to the scanty experiences related to language these children undergo, and on the development of basic cognitive functions needed for school learning to be positively achieved. A sample of 98 six-year-old children from Entre Ríos (República Argentina) has been analyzed experimental group (n = 55) and a control group without risk (n = 43). The following instruments were administered within school environment Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT - Kaufman, A.S., & Kaufman, N.L., 2000), Phonological Conscience Test (Borzone & Diuk, 2001), Matching Familiar Figures Test 20 (MFFT20 -Cairns & Cammock, 1978), Stroop Type Task Sun - Moon (Archibald & Kerns, 1999). The intervention was carried out involving two axes. One of them, a direct intervention with the children inside the classroom, implemented by team members (interventionists), and the other, consisting in training teachers to be able to device classroom activities, taking into account the different strategies put forward by the programme named Without Affection there is neither Learning nor Growth, modelled on the booklets designed for the intervention. To describe neurocognitive profiles according to risk by poverty, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed. Besides, MANOVA and ANOVA the repeated measures were used to get to know the pre- and post-intervention changes in the group at risk. Results indicate significant differences before intervention and according to degree of social risk. Children in a vulnerable social situation scored lower at performances regarding verbal ability and general intelligence, selective attention capacity, and displayed greater cognitive precipitation, lower development of phonological conscience and cognitive style reflexivity - impulsiveness (R - I) depending on social risk. Results concerning the effects of intervention upon cognitive resources show the effectiveness of adaptation of strategies to the curriculum. After intervention, it became evident that children made fewer mistakes and used a greater latency time, both being indicators of a lesser cognitive precipitation. Besides, data following this intervention shows highly significant progress regarding the aforementioned processes, which allows us to infer that the implemented strategies are appropriate to work with children at risk by poverty and are pertinent to the educational task, due to the easy adequacy of these strategies to school curriculum. We think that the programme, inasmuch as it proposes an intervention that takes into account a double mode (direct and indirect), allows children to receive a systematic and controlled stimulus, and offers the teacher the possibility to apply the internalized strategies to every planning, without the need for a permanent face-to-face training. This allows for transfer, generalization and continuity in time of the designed intervention, which will guarantee all children, independently of their social origin, a similar point of arrival. Likewise, knowledge of the cognitive profile allows for guidance of teachers in the design of their curriculum planning, directing and focusing the strategies for a timely development of the teaching-learning process.