27 children with PE: 16 in study group (mean age=10.07 yrs, SD=1.149) and 11 in waiting-list group (mean age = 10.51 yrs, SD=1.766) with same profiles of cognitive impairment participated. Study group received individual supervised rehabilitation twice a week during 6 weeks with FORAMENRehab software (Sarajuuri et al, 2000; adapted for children by authors), while waiting-list group received no training. Intervention effect for study group and control performance for waiting-list group was evaluated comparing baseline tasks after 6-week-period. Results were analyzed with Mann-Whitney U test.
Significant improvement was seen for study group after intervention. In complex attention tasks they gave more correct responses (p<0.05), had less omission errors (p<0.05) and total mistakes (p<0.01). In tracking task they had more correct answers (p<0.01) and less total mistakes (p<0.01). In visual organization and visual attention tasks they performed more correctly (p<0.05, p<0.01 respectively) and attended faster to stimuli (p<0.01). In visuospatial perception they had more correct solutions (p <0.05) and trend for less wrong moves (p=0.0507). No improvement was seen in focused and sustained attention and visual recognition. Waiting-list group only performed better in visuospatial perception task (p<0.05).
Neurorehabilitation with FORAMENRehab is effective for children with PE. Children significantly improved in two more complicated attention components: complex and tracking; and in three main visuospatial components: visual organization, attention and perception. Modern computer-assisted neurocognitive intervention could improve the fundamentals of learning in children with cognitive impairment.