The Effects of Neuropsychopedagogical Intervention on Children with Learning Difficulties

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of neuropsychopedagogical intervention (INPp) on the academic performance of students with learning difficulties (LD). A total of 4,184 children aged between 6 and 8 years (±7.23) of both genders participated in the present study. They were divided into four groups (A1 –1151 children who did not present LD and who underwent INPp; A2 – 1151 children without LD who did not undergo INPp; B1 - 942 children who presented AD and who underwent INPp; B2 - 942 children with LD and who did not undergo INPp). The INPP was developed through the systematic practice of 04 playful activities, in three weekly sessions, lasting 45 minutes each for 18 sessions (±2 months). In order to evaluate the effects of the INPP, the participants were submitted to the following protocols: a) Dual Choice Mental Processing Test (DMCPT) ; b) Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN); c) Assessment of academic performance in Portuguese and Mathematics. All protocols were approved by the UFRJ ethics committee (opinion no. 517,483) and carried out in the school environment. Our results show that children in group A1 when evaluated after INPp presented an 18% reduction (p<0.05) in the response time obtained in the DMCPT and children in group B2 presented a significant reduction (p<0, 01) 40% in response time. When evaluated post INPp in relation to RAN, children in group A1 showed a reduction of 14.29% (p<0.05) and children in group B1 a reduction of 23% (p<0.01) in automated color naming time. Finally, when evaluated in relation to academic performance, after INPp, children in group A1 showed an increase of 16% (p<0.05) and children in group B1 an increase of 46.23% (p<0.01 ) in the number of correct answers.