A inclusão de crianças com perturbações do espetro do autismo

Abstract

This work aims to capture the perception of parents and teachers and students about inclusive education, try to identify difficulties experienced in the inclusion of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), looking for help to improve the educational and social inclusion of these children and young people The person with disabilities has suffered skin and soul from the most remote antiquity the stigma of difference inflicted by the various societies over time. He was the victim of exclusion, thrown into rivers, pursued, tried, executed, separated from the family, admitted to orphanages, hospices and prisons, discriminated and segregated. Nowadays, Inclusion is a process of social change that is aimed at creating more just, supportive and tolerant societies, that has its foundation in the dignity and equality of all men. This social change implies common aspirations and continuity over time. It conveys an ideal of life in society which may be understood as civilization, as opposed to the treatment given by the societies that preceded us. The school, with its role in the transmission of values and the formation of human personality, has a great responsibility in this whole process, but also local communities and the state. Inclusive education teaches values, understanding, knowledge and skills that will make possible the participation of everyone in the school, community and society in general. Inclusion involves an active combat to exclusion through education, since it has implied the presence, participation and achievement of all students in school and society. The difficulties that challenge the inclusion are not children, says UNESCO (2005), but in the attitudes of adults. To be the agent of this change, the school must question their beliefs and values, change the school culture and traditional principles and adopt inclusive values that will guide the policies and practices of inclusive education: a quality education for all students in regular school, giving to each one according to their needs, and valuing all students and the entire school community. This work will address more specifically about the inclusion of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Students with autism exhibit a “triad” of impairments involving a specific commitment at the level of social communication, social interaction and imaginative play and restricted interests and repetitive (Wing & Gould, 1979, cit. Hewitt, 2006). These disorders imply a deficit in the thought flexibility and a specificity in learning that compromise particularly the individual’s contact and communication with the environment (Geschwind, 2009, Jordan, 2000; Siegel, 2008). We intend to conduct a study in order to answer the scientific problem: How are implemented practices, policies and culture of inclusion among pupils with autism spectrum disorders in a school located in Barcelos. The objectives of the study are: (i) Meet the training and experience of the teachers involved, (ii) Know the support available to them, (iii) investigate pedagogical practices, (iv) To know the perception of students, teachers and parents. The methodology assumes a mixed nature (quantitative and qualitative), involving the collection of opinion data through the questionnaire survey "Index for Inclusion" Booth and Ainscow (2002), naturalistic observations and document analysis.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Bilimória (Supervisor)