O processo de inclusão de crianças com o Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) na educação infantil

Abstract

The Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a Neurodevelopmental Disorder which encompasses some deficits regarding social abilities and communication, besides restricted and repetitive behaviors. Given the Research Problem, which investigated how the process of inclusion of children with ASD was being held in public institutions of Early Childhood Education (up until 5 years old; all following references to Early Childhood Education concerns education until the age of five, which is the definition of Educação Infantil in Brazil), in São Luís/MA, and the hypothesis which claims that, in spite of all the legal apparatus which ensures the children’s inclusion at school, there are still barriers, especially the attitudinal ones – which do not effectively allow the inclusion of autistic children in Early Childhood Education –, the main goal of this study is to investigate the process of inclusion of children with ASD, in public institutions of Early Childhood Education, in São Luís/MA, given the perception of their relatives and of the professionals of the aforementioned institutions. To that end, an exploratory and descriptive research with a qualitative approach was held in two institutions of Early Childhood Education which had children with ASD. There were 20 participants, out of which four were relatives of children with ASD and sixteen were professionals who worked with the aforementioned children in the researched institutions. After the Consolidated Report by the Ethics Committee (CEP/CONEP/UFMA, Nº 2.891.951), the data were collected via semi-structured interviews, applying two scripts which had, each, 12 questions regarding general themes about what ASD is; which characteristics it possesses; what the peers’ relationship with children with ASD is like; what the perception of other children’s parents about children with ASD is; what the level of the professionals’ preparation to deal with children with ASD is; how the process of inclusion of those children is held in schools, etc. Thus, a script was sent to the relatives and another one, to the professionals. The results revealed that most participants had adequate knowledges regarding ASD; despite most children with ASD being treated and being well received by professionals and children without ASD, in the researched institutions, there are still barriers to be overcome regarding Inclusive Education in Early Childhood Education, such as the ones which were caused by the stigmas concerning the mentioned neurodevelopmental disorder, as well as the fear and/or rejection that parents and other relatives had of their children’s interaction – who do not have ASD – with children with ASD; most professionals who work with children with ASD still feel ill-prepared; there is a need of a partnership between the researched institutions and relatives of children with ASD, therefore, creating another barrier concerning the inclusion of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Early Childhood Education.