DIAGNÓSTICO HISTÓRICO-CULTURAL

This study addresses school learning difficulties in special education, posing the question: how does historical-cultural diagnosis contribute to identifying the neuropsychological causes of these difficulties and guiding pedagogical intervention? The objective is to demonstrate the contributions of this approach to understanding and addressing school learning problems. A qualitative, non-experimental case study was conducted with a 7-year-old boy attending the second grade in a special education school. Following ethical guidelines and with informed consent, neuropsychological protocols (Puebla-Sevilla, memory processes, visual functions, and neurolinguistics) were administered across four sessions. The analytical framework utilized syndromic analysis (identification of the primary impairment or underlying cause and its systemic effects) and structural analysis of school activity (evaluation of the impact on the components of the child's actions). The results identified a primary impairment in the non-specific general activation factor (linked to subcortical structures such as the thalamus/pulvinar nucleus), manifested as fatigue and attention fluctuations, which produced systemic effects on audio-verbal retention and reading. This guided the design of playful mediators and motivation-based adaptations. It is concluded that historical-cultural diagnosis goes beyond mere symptom description by pinpointing the root cause of the problem, providing special educators with a solid foundation for implementing appropriate curricular adaptations.