Assisted cognitive tests, that include assistance from an examiner, analyze the process of problem solving and the learning potential, complementing traditional psychometric assessment. They are especially useful for cases of special educational needs (SEN). This study analyzed the relationship between the performance of children with and without special needs, in three assisted and two psychometric tests, and between the performance profile in assisted tests and status variables (gender, education and SEN). Results of 256 assisted tests and 228 psychometric tests were analyzed, those obtained in six studies, that counted with 228 children (125 girls) with 5-12 years (M = 8 years and 6 months), enrolled from kindergarten to elementary school (three in special class) and stating: learning disability (63), visual impairment (6), premature birth and low body weight (38), premature birth and very low body weight (30) and without SEN (91). In psychometric tests, the ratings at Columbia-EMC (69 applications) were mostly Medium-lower (40.5%) and Medium (33.3%) and in Raven-MPC (159 applications), Intellectually on the Average (45.2%) and Definitely Above Average (23.9%). As for assisted tests (256 applications) - Search Question's Game with Geometric Figures (154 applications) and with General Figures (34 applications) and the Children's Analogical Thinking Modifiability Test (68 applications) predominated the profile Winner (55.8%), followed by the profile Winner Dependent on Assistance (16.8%), No Maintainer (14%) and High Score (13.3%). There were no significant associations between performance on psychometric and assisted tests, confirming the proposition of complementarity of these assessment methodologies, especially for children with development problems.
Special Education; Dynamic assessment; Intelligence testing; Cognitive Modifiability Theory; Student with special needs
