Abstract

TUNES, Elizabeth; SOUZA, Carlos Barbosa Alves de; FLORES, Eileen Pfeiffer  and  SILVA, Elzamir Gonzaga. Generalização e abstração na aquisição de conceitos cotidianos e científicos em pessoas com síndrome de Down. Arq. bras. psicol. [online]. 2007, vol.59, n.1, pp. 51-61. ISSN 1809-5267.

When trying to aid the development of higher psychological processes in two adolescents with Down syndrome, we verified that they presented difficulties in the situations that demanded generalization and abstraction processes. Basing on the suppositions of Vygotsky’s sociohistorical theory, we showed how the elaboration of an activity that allowed to the two adolescents to accomplish and to analyze semiotically the logical operations of subordination and supraordination didhave a positive effect in their capacities to form and to understand concepts. Inversely to the conventional way of thinking, the best results came from teaching first the abstract concepts: it seems that the generalization and abstraction processes operate in an inverse way in the acquisition of the everyday and scientific concepts; from the item to the supraordinate class in the everyday ones and from the class to the item in the scientific ones.

Keywords : Down syndrome; Generalization and abstraction processes; Acquisition of concepts; Higher psychological processes; Vygotsky.

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