Memória de trabalho visual: análise em crianças com e sem Transtorno do Espectro Autista

Abstract

Executive functions are skills that, integrated and complementary, enable the subject to organize their behavior in order to achieve a certain goal. Among these is the working memory, which promotes the active and temporary storage of information used during the performance of an activity. A specific type refers to visual working memory, responsible for storing and handling relevant visual information for a short time. This last skill may present specificities in relation to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, whose pathology is of a neurodevelopmental character, and may affect the subject's social, behavioral and communication skills. The results regarding the visual working memory in the public with Autism Spectrum Disorder are discrepant and thus indicate spaces to be researched within this theme. In this sense, the present study aimed to analyze the performance in visual working memory of children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. 44 children participated, divided into two groups (GT - control group and GTEA - group with disorder), aged 6 to 10 years, and the instruments used were "Human Figure Drawing (DFH)", Clinical Opinion, "Scale Assessment of Child Autism - CARS-BR (adapted from the Childhood Autism Rating Scale - CARS), Clinical interview and sociodemographic questionnaire, “Sensory Profile 2” and the “Computerized Working Memory Task for Children” (TIMTraC). After data collection, they underwent statistical analysis through the statistical analysis package Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 21). It was observed that there was no statistically significant difference between the groups, but the isolated descriptive results pointed out that the GT presented a better performance compared to the GTEA. In this sense, it was possible to indicate an executive profile of visual working memory in children aged 6 to 10 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder in relation to children in typical development.