Cognitive abilities in children in contexts of poverty

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>A series of studies of cognitive abilities were conducted on a group of children at a context of poverty, in reason of learning about the quality of such capabilities, and in direct relationship to low school performance and subsequent risk of academic underachievement. </span>Fifty three 4th year EGB-2 (Elementary School) children of both sexes participated. They attend a suburban school outside the city of San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina. Tests of Analogies and Building with Cubes of Wechsler ́s Intelligence Scale III (WISCIII ) were used in the process. Additionally, a register protocol was prepared by the research team. Outcomes were articulated with a demographic poll inquiring on the social-economic context of the children. Results reveal a proportion of 18.9 % of the children showing below standard records in cognitive abilities related to the aptitude in forming verbal concepts, and of 13.2 % in non- verbal concepts. Verbal abilities refer to the faculty of classifying and categorizing, for which the subject needs to organize, abstract and find relationship between facts or ideas and the comprehension of oral/audio assignments. Non- verbal abilities submit to the aptitude of making processes of analysis- synthesis and applying non- verbal reasoning to spatial relationships. This group of children was selected to receive – in second stage- training in these abilities through the Instrumental Enrichment Program. </p></div></div>