Avaliação neuropsicológica das habilidades metalinguísticas e funções executivas de crianças com dificuldades de aprendizagem: meta-análise.

Abstract

Regarding the problem related to learning difficulties, there are two elements of fundamental importance to be studied and evaluated, the Executive Functions and the Metalinguistic Skills. The Executive functions (EF) refers to an integrated set of skills that allows the subject to plan, direct, monitor and sequence their behavior independently, in order to achieve specific goals. The metalinguistic skills, in the other hand, refer to the ability to think the language itself, which include syntactic, semantic and phonological metalinguistic skills. The cognitive processes involved in reading and writing skills are, therefore, related to phonological processing, including memory and phonological awareness. Thus, from a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis, we aimed to identify which metalinguistic abilities and executive functions stand out in the context of learning difficulties. A search for studies in the databases PEPSIC, SCIELO, CAPES and BVS-PSI between the years 2003 and 2015 was carried out. The search resulted in the identification of 146 studies, and has been included in the analysis 24 studies published in Brazil, using the portuguese language, which dealt with metalinguistic abilities and EFs in children with learning difficulties. Descriptive and correlational statistical analyzes were performed from the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results revealed that failures in executive functions and metalinguistic skills result in difficulties in the children's learning process, and that within the theme metalinguistic skills a component stands in relation to learning, which is phonological awareness. In the literature there is no theoretical consensus as to which element of the triad of executive functions excels, however, from this systematic review, the inhibitory control excelled in relation to other executive abilities. It is concluded that using meta-analysis in this type of studies, one can reach a greater depth and objectivity in many subjects.