Todos na roda: o uso da Comunicação Alternativa e Ampliada em uma escola de Educação Infantil

Abstract

There has been an expressive increase in the number of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) enrolled in Early Childhood Education, the first stage of Basic Education in the country, responsible for the age group from zero to five years old. Many come to school with difficulties of establishing a more meaningful communication and have their behavior and social interaction jeopardized. In order to meet and complement their specific needs, regular education networks have expanded the offer of Specialized Educational Service, which today is preferably done by the Multifunctional Resource Rooms (MRR), which teachers go through continuing education. However, it is not unusual for there to be a mismatch between the needs of the student and the pedagogical response that the school offers, such as the absence of use of alternative forms of communication to the lack of functional speech and the lack of school practices that encourage them. This study had as objectives to verify the effects of the continuing education carried out in collaborative action with an MRR teacher, for the use of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in the communicative exchanges and interaction of two children with ASD, without functional speech included in an institution of Early Childhood Education. It was structured in two moments that happened concomitantly: a collaborative intervention and a supervision intervention. The first one happened with the format of study meetings and resource production workshop, and the second one was held at MRR, accompanying the teacher in her work with the students. The effects were verified through observation in the use of resource and strategies of AAC by the teacher with the children in the initiatives and responses of the interactive acts accomplished and not accomplished and the waiting time of the teacher in the changes of shifts. The results show an increase in the intention to communicate evidenced by the greater number of responses and the emergence, albeit insipient, of the number of communicative initiatives of the children and a change of attitude of the teacher with more tranquility in waiting for the answers and to favor the moments of interaction demonstrating more safety when using AAC strategies. The generalization effects on the part of the teacher were also observed when extending the knowledge that she acquired to other environments of the school.