Prontidão escolar em pré-escolares brasileiros: adaptação do I-BRE-PRE, relação com funções executivas e variáveis socioeconômicas

Abstract

School readiness (SR) refers to a set of skills developed throughout early childhood education (ECE) that promotes school adaptation and learning upon the child’s school entry, and these skills are closely linked to executive functions (EF). This construct remains under investigated in Brazil in the field of early childhood research, despite its importance for monitoring learning goals and early mapping of potential developmental delay signs. This dissertation is divided into two descriptive, cross-sectional, multicenter studies: one aimed at adapting and investigating the psychometric properties of the ‘Índice Breve de Prontidão Escolar’ (I-Bre-PE), a SR questionnaire filled by teachers, and the other aimed at investigating SR indicators in children from different socioeconomic levels (SEL), and their relationships with daily EF. After the completion of its cross-cultural adaptation, the first study obtained evidence of content and construct validity of the Brazilian-adapted version of the original instrument, which proved to be comparable to the original English version. The second study involved the completion of the I-Bre-PE by ECE teachers of N=83 children 3 to 6 years of age enrolled in preschools (69.1% public schools) in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. Findings revealed significant yet weak non-parametric associations between the children's daily EF and SR indicators, and significant differences between SEL groups were found regarding the Language and Cognition and Family Support indexes (p<0.05). Both findings contribute to the scarce literature on SR in Brazil, and contributes to the availability of a free, accessible and feasible SR assessment tool for ECE teachers. The implications of the findings are duly discussed, and the methodological limitations are presented. Keywords: learning; child development; neuropsychology; school readiness; executive functions.