PROGRAMA DE INTERVENCIÓN, PARA FORTALECER FUNCIONES COGNITIVAS Y LINGÜÍSTICAS, ADAPTADO AL CURRÍCULO ESCOLAR EN NIÑOS EN RIESGO POR POBREZA* INTERVENTION PROGRAM TO STRENGTHEN COGNITIVE AND LINGUISTIC FUNCTIONS ADAPTED TO THE SCHOOL CURRICULA IN CHILDREN AT RISK BY POVERTY

In recent past years, studies on poverty and its impact upon cognitive and emotional development have increased notoriously. A number of works have shown how living in poverty leads to deficits in children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development and to a lower performance in cognitive tests. The aim of this work is to present the design of intervention strategies and their implementation integrated to the school curriculum, in order to strengthen cognitive and linguistic resources in children at risk due to extreme poverty. Based on these considerations, we present an intervention programme which aims at favouring emotional and cognitive development by means of adaptation of strategies to school curriculum, so that the latter may adjust itself to the needs of infant population in conditions of social vulnerability. Among other things, it is necessary to emphasize on the development of phonological conscience, ascribable to the scanty experiences related to language these children undergo, and on the development of basic cognitive functions needed for school learning to be positively achieved. A sample of 98 six-year-old children from Entre Rios (Republica Argentina) has been analyzed: experimental group (n = 55) and a control group without risk (n = 43). The following instruments were administered within school environment: Brief Intelligence Test (KBIT Kaufman, A.S., & Kaufman, N.L., 2000), Phonological Conscience Test (Borzone & Diuk, 2001), Matching Familiar Figures Test 20 (MFFT20 Cairns & Cammock, 1978), Stroop Type Task: Sun Moon (Archibald & Kerns, 1999). The intervention was carried out involving two axes. One of them, a direct intervention with the children inside the classroom, implemented by team members (interventionists), and the other, consisting in training teachers to be able to device classroom activities, taking into account the different strategies put forward by the programme named Without Affection there is neither Learning nor Growth, modelled on the booklets designed for the intervention. To describe neurocognitive profiles according to risk by poverty, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were employed. Besides, MANOVA and ANOVA the repeated measures were used to get to know the preand post-intervention changes in the group at risk. Results indicate significant differences before intervention and according to degree of social risk. Children in a vulnerable social situation scored lower at performances regarding verbal ability and general intelligence, selective attention capacity, and displayed greater cognitive precipitation, lower development of phonological conscience and cognitive style reflexivity impulsiveness (R I) depending on social risk. Results concerning the effects of intervention upon cognitive resources show the effectiveness of adaptation of strategies to the curriculum. After intervention, it became evident that children made fewer mistakes and used a greater latency time, both being indicators of a lesser cognitive precipitation. Besides, data following Ghiglione, Aran Filippetti, Manucci y Apaz 18 INTERDISCIPLINARIA, 2011, 28, 1, 17-36 GHIGLIONE 2do. trab. 17-36 pp.:Maquetaci n 1 19/07/2011 11:59 a.m. PAEgina 18