Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Camila Rosa de; RODRIGUES, Jaqueline de Carvalho  and  FONSECA, Rochele Paz. Use of neuropsychological tests for the assessment of learning disabilities. Rev. psicopedag. [online]. 2009, vol.26, n.79, pp. 65-76. ISSN 0103-8486.

Neuropsychology is related to other fields of study such as health and education. However, intersection between Neuropsychology and Psychopedagogy is still incipient in Brazil. Regarding this subject, it was held a systematic review in order to examine which neuropsychological instruments have been used to assess learning disabilities (LD), as well as to identify which are the main evaluated samples. Therefore abstracts of papers published from 1999 to 2008 were analyzed. Based on MEDLINE data, the following keywords were used: learning disabilities and child and cognition, and learning disabilities and child and neuropsychology - this one increased by one of the following words: test, evaluation or assessment. Researching on SciELO's database, the keyword "learning" had been combined with "Neuropsychology" and "cognition". Articles were included only if presented empirical study, evaluated LD with neuropsychological instruments, assessed children and had been written in Portuguese, Spanish or English. After research 33 articles that complete the inclusion criteria were found, with 60 neuropsychological registered tests. Wechsler's scales were the most employed, being present in 48% of the articles. In their totality all the studies investigated clinical samples. The administration of neuropsychological tools for learning aspects can be considered very important since several cognitive components are involved in this processing. Nevertheless, neuropsychological evaluation in the context of LD detection should be deeper in a quantitative and qualitative way, because its results are still insufficiently interpreted. So, it will contribute for a more accurate process of neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation of learning problems, always considering multidisciplinary approaches.

Keywords : Neuropsychological tests; Learning disorders; Child.

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