Learning disabilities are a common and growing problem in developed countries. They have a negative impact on children’s academic performance, as well as on their family dynamics and environment. Moreover, children with learning disabilities show higher rates of mental illness, more social and emotional problems, and poorer peer relationships. If these difficulties are not identified and dealt with as early as possible, they may have damaging effects on their developmental pathway. Learning disabilities include a wide range of difficulties, such as low reading fluency, interpretation and orthographic difficulties, difficulties in memorizing numeric and arithmetic facts or in mathematical reasoning. The identification, prevention and subsequent intervention of learning disabilities are prime objectives for those concerned with early childhood development. The identification of learning disabilities and the diagnosis of specific learning disorders can be quite challenging, due to the wide spectrum of difficulties that children may show. However, the identification of some warning signs at specific developmental stages can contribute to prevent the emergence of learning disabilities. This symposium examines the model of assessment and intervention on learning disabilities developed at the Learning Disabilities Unit of the Service of Psychological Intervention with Children and Adolescents of the Faculty of Psychology and Sciences of Education of University of Porto. It includes four oral presentations. The first, aims at exploring the implementation of an intervention project based on Response-to-Intervention as a strategy to early identification of learning difficulties and design interventions directed to prevent the emergence of learning disabilities and disorders. The two next presentations analyze three individual interventions aiming to promote reading and writing processes, and mathematical competencies, respectively. The final case presentation describes two levels of intervention (i.e., child and school), intending to promote the child’s learning and school performance, and socio-emotional development.

Professor Margarida Rangel Henriques is Psychologist and Psychotherapist from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto. She teaches at the bachelor and master level, as well as in the PhD Program, and the main topics are psychotherapy with children and adolescents and research methods. She also participates in masters at other universities and in professional training courses. The main research areas are Narrative Psychology, adoption studies, and Clinical Psychology. She is head of the Psychology Intervention Centre for Children and Adolescents in the same Faculty. She has clinical specialization in the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies, Constructivist Therapies, Cognitive-Narrative Therapy and Systemic Family Therapy. She has a long experience in the training and supervision of clinical psychologists. She publish in the areas of narrative construction and identity, suicidal and professional intervention in the domain, child in risk and development, adoption and anorexia and about childhood clinical intervention model. She has, in addition to the academic and research activity, a regular clinical activity, as individual and family therapy.