Development of attention: acting in special classes

Abstract

The following paper aimed to present psychological practices that promoted the development of attention in children who attended Special Classes in a public school from a city located in the State of São Paulo. These Special Classes were designed for students who have not achieved the minimum score in regular school tests. In a participatory nature and interactive type the research assumed as theoretical and methodological perspective the Historical-Cultural Psychology, with an emphasis on Vygotsky’s interpretation of development and learning. Twenty-six students from the fourth and fifth grades from Elementary School participated in the research. The results reveal that practices such as orientation and planning of actions with children enables the meaningfulness of the activities developed, and concomitantly the self regulation of attention. However, meaningfulness to children is only consolidated when, through an expanded perception of the situation, they start to plan their actions based on a new model of thinking and understanding reality. This highlights the importance of the environment and the mediations to the development of attention and other Higher Mental Functions.