Open-access Evaluation of Training Actions for Interactions Mediated by Alternative Communication with a Student with Autism

ABSTRACT:

This article aimed to propose a training instruction program for regular schoolteachers involved with a non-verbal student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on the use of their Alternative Communication system and to verify the effects on their participation during class time and school activities. The type AB study took place in a municipal Elementary School in a neighborhood on the west side of a medium-sized city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. A 10-year-old student with ASD and user of an Alternative Communication Program, called Adapted PECS, and four common schoolteachers participated. The frequencies of student/teacher communicative interactions with and without Alternative Communication (AC) were collected during the regular classes. The intervention using the resource followed Incidental Teaching strategies to leverage natural communicative situations in the observed contexts that provided direct engagement between the student and the participating teachers using AC. The results indicated a decrease in student behavior disorders and positive changes in teachers as interlocutors. It is considered that the study achieved the objective and presents an account on how it is possible to favor the performance of teachers working with students with ASD by appropriating knowledge about AC.

KEYWORDS:
Special Education; Alternative Communication; ASD; Training

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