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.

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 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...

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Resumo: Os estudos sobre a expressividade da língua vêm desde a Grécia e a Roma antigas, mas apenas no século XX foram apresentados como uma disciplina por Bally, sob a denominação de Estilística. Nesta pesquisa, damos enfoque ao âmbito dessa ciência que estuda os sons e, tendo como base teórica Monteiro (2006) e Martins (1997, objetivamos analisá-los como um recurso empregado na nomeação dos personagens do autor modernista Guimarães Rosa, a partir da análise do potencial expressivo dos fonemas. O corpus utilizado é composto por dezessete contos, os quais estão reunidos na obra Primeiras estórias, do autor referido. Com o intuito de observar se Guimarães Rosa utiliza a Fonoestilística como um recurso na nomeação dos personagens, os contos analisados são apenas aqueles em que os personagens apresentam nomes próprios. Por meio da análise realizada, foi possível constatar a relação direta entre as características dos personagens e a expressividade oriunda dos fonemas que formam os seus antropônimos, levandonos à conclusão de que Rosa utiliza-se de aspectos fonoestilísticos na realização do processo de denominação, de modo a apresentar a caracterização dos seus personagens por meio dos seus nomes. Abstract:The studies about the language's expressivity exist since the old Greece and Rome, but only in the twenty-century they were introduced as a subject by Bally, with the name of Estilistic. In this research, we are going to enfoque the part of this science that studies the sounds and, having Monteiro (2006) and Martins (1997) as theorical bases, we objected to analyse them as a resource used in the denomination of the characters by the modernist author Guimarães Rosa, through the analysis of the expressive potential of the phonemes. The corpus that is been used is composed of seventeen tales, that are reunited in the work Primeiras estórias from the mentioned author. With the purpose of observing if Guimarães Rosa uses the Phonoestilistic as a resource in the denomination of the characters, the tales that have been analysed are just the ones that the characters have own names. Through the analysis, it was possible to notice the direct relation between the characteristics of the characters and the expressivity of the phonemes that compose their anthroponyms, taking us to the conclusion that Rosa uses the phonoestilistics aspects in the process of intitulation, in a way that presents the characterization of their characters through their names.