Desde el paradigma de L.S. Vigotsky, los signos y símbolos son instrumentos psicológicos cuya adquisición garantiza el desarrollo. La función simbólica se comprende como habilidad para dominar signos y símbolos (Salmina, 1988). En este estudio se muestran los resultados de la aplicación de un programa de juego de roles sociales para la formación de la función simbólica en niños de educación preescolar (grupo experimental), durante cinco meses. El juego se dirigió a la formación de los niveles constitutivos de la función simbólica (sustitución, codificación y esquematización); en los planos del desarrollo psicológico (materializado, perceptivo concreto, perceptivo esquematizado y verbal). El análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo de la evaluación post-test muestran que los niños del grupo experimental tuvieron un mejor desempeño en los planos y categorías e valuadas.

Among neurodevelopmental disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the main cause of school failure in children. Notably, visuospatial dysfunction has also been emphasized as a leading cause of low cognitive performance in children with ADHD. Consequently, the present study aimed to identify ADHD-related changes in electroencephalography (EEG) characteristics, associated with visual object processing in school-aged children. We performed Multichannel EEG recordings in 16-year-old children undergoing Navon’s visual object processing paradigm. We mapped global coherence during the processing of local and global visual stimuli that were consistent, inconsistent, or neutral. We found that Children with ADHD showed significant differences in global weighted coherence during the processing of local and global inconsistent visual stimuli and longer response times in comparison to the control group. Delta and theta EEG bands highlighted important features for classification in both groups. Thus, we advocate EEG coherence and low-frequency EEG spectral power as prospective markers of visual processing deficit in ADHD. Our results have implications for the development of diagnostic interventions in ADHD and provide a deeper understanding of the factors leading to low performance in school-aged children.

Introducción. Valorar el desarrollo neuropsicológico de niños preescolares permite determinar los mecanismos débiles y fuertes en el curso del desarrollo infantil y conocer el nivel de preparación del niño para la escuela. El juego de roles sociales es una actividad que promueve el desarrollo neuropsicológico.Objetivo. Mostrar los resultados de la aplicación de un programa de juego de roles sociales para promover el desarrollo neuropsicológico en niños preescolares.Materiales y métodos. Se realizó un estudio longitudinal cuasiexperimental con niños de dos grupos, uno experimental (n=28) y otro control (n=31). Se aplicaron pre-test y post-test a ambos grupos. El grupo experimental participó en un programa de juego de roles. La evaluación y el programa se basaron en los conceptos de la psicología y neuropsicología histórico-cultural. El grupo control solo recibió el programa curricular oficial de preescolar.Resultados. A través de análisis cuantitativos y cualitativos se observaron mejores ejecuciones de los niños del grupo experimental, principalmente en tareas gráficas y verbales y en mayores posibilidades de autoregulación.Conclusiones. El juego de roles promueve el desarrollo neuropsicológico. Los resultados muestran la utilidad de métodos de juego como estrategia de trabajo psicopedagógico.

The background of the article is historical and cultural neuropsychology, which proposes analysis of learning activity from the level of its functional brain organization. Qualitative assessment of difficulties and functional analysis of syndromes permits to determine brain cortical and subcortical factors or mechanisms, which participate in fulfillment of different actions and operations of learning activity at school age. The objective of the present article is to contribute to consideration of ways and methods of neuropsychological assessment in cases of adolescents with learning disabilities and to share the opinion about the advantages of neuropsychological approach for the understanding of neuropsychological nature of learning disabilities in adolescents. Two cases of female adolescents with learning disability were included in the study. The scheme for neuropsychological assessment created for Spanish speaking patients was applied. Such kind of assessment permits to detect unique brain mechanism or factor responsible for pupil's difficulties.

ObjectiveThe purpose of our study was to demonstrate the benefits of role play based on a Historical–Cultural perspective with the implementation of symbolic elements generated by the development of drawing of preschool children from suburban origin in a group of normal Mexican preschool children. We predict that the quality of the drawings will be improved after the preschoolers participate in such a role play program.MethodsA pre-experimental study was carried out, with pre-test and post-test assessments. The drawings were assessed with quantitative (frequencies of the quality of the parameters) and qualitative (characteristics of the children's drawings) methods. The role play program was based on Elkonin's method, activity theory, and P. Ya Galperin's formation by stages of mental actions. The program encouraged the use of graphic signs and symbols, with the intention of representing situations, actions, objects, and/or contents. Twenty-six preschool children participated in our study.ResultsTo know the effect of the role play program with symbolic elements on the drawing of preschool children, we performed a quantitative and qualitative analysis, a Wilcoxon test contrast between the initial and final assessment. Both analyses showed a significant increase in the scores in all the tasks with a medium–large effect size, being the largest “Pictograms” and “Drawing of the route”; and in the analysis of the qualitative parameters, specifically in “Maintains the objective,” a significant increase was found in all the tasks.DiscussionRole play, being the main activity in preschool age, develops all aspects of the child's psychic life. The importance of role play in a preschool child makes it possible to work in the zone of proximal development with the regulatory function of language, with the planning, execution, and control of playful activity and, most importantly, with the use of various materials and perceptual-graphics tools. These findings showed an improvement in the development and complexity of the symbolic function in the drawings.ConclusionRole play, as a work methodology in preschool age, leads to the use of new meaning systems that prepare the child to carry out present and future complex symbolic actions.