Enhancing text understanding

A text comprehension program aimed at third to fifth grade students in primary school, focused on working memory executive processes and associated executive functions, easily applicable and integratable into didactic programming.

The main purpose of the training is to exercise the executive processes of working memory through the conscious use and control of the cognitive processes involved in understanding the text.  The program combines repetition, feedback and a gradual adjustment of the difficulty of the proposed tasks, and requires the children to participate actively and continuously throughout the course.

In the proposed activities, the students will have to use specific executive processes related to working memory:

• the focus of attention on a task;
• the shift of attention (switching) between various information contained in the text;
• the connection of the information in the text with one’s knowledge;
• semantic updating in the working memory;
• the inhibition of irrelevant information, or information useless for the performance of that particular task.

The program proposes 10 training stages: different activities in the form of games, interactive motor exercises, created for classroom use and to stimulate children’s motivation.