Trissomia 21

: (con)viver com a diferença

Abstract

The controversy and lack of consensus around the concept of "inclusion", when it concerns education become more evident in the social and school environment. There is an agreement with children’s Education, which can be seen in the school world and, in particular, in the classroom context, and whose main objective is preparing them for and integrating them into the world of work and society in general by providing them with the best possible conditions and learning techniques. For children with special needs, "inclusion" implies the integration into a regular class in interaction with their peers, regardless of their degree of handicap, "forcing" everyone and everything to live with the difference and its own specificities. In the classroom environment, children with special needs have a specific program for the subjects, which are common to the curriculum of all the other so-called "normal" children. However, it’s important to distinguish between two concepts – "integration" and "inclusion"- whose difference is not only based on the definition itself, but also on philosophical and conceptual terms. “Integration" is defended by those who believe that children with disabilities should start learning in an environment of special education and, subsequently, integrate a regular class. On the other hand, those who defend "inclusion" consider that children with disabilities must start their teaching-learning process in regular classes, and that children with special needs should only be taken from those classes when they aren’t offered the required conditions to learn As mentioned in the regulations and circulars of the Ministry of education, " The Special Needs Education Teacher should be the one who offers his professional attention to students with special educational needs integrated into regular schools", so his main purpose must be to focus on students with learning difficulties, to provide them with a pedagogical reinforcement essential for the successful conclusion of their educational process. In this way, the teachers, in particular the Special Needs Education Teachers, are the main involved in this process and it’s important to know about their attitude regarding the inclusion of children with Down syndrome in regular classes. This report is about the inclusion of children with special educational needs, in particular with Down syndrome, in regular schools. This is a critical reflection based on my professional and personal experience, as well as the strategies and methodologies developed and applied by me in order to overcome the difficulties I have encountered.

Date of Award	27 Jul 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filomena Ermida Figueiredo Branco da Ponte (Supervisor)