INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER: THE CASE OF THE AUTONOMOUS REGION OF MADEIRA (PORTUGAL)

Abstract

The education of students with special educational needs occupies a prominent place in international recommendations.

The purpose that autistic children have the right to education alongside their peers triggered differentiated responses that promote inclusion led by different educational agents.

The National Research Council (2001) states: “there are many different goals for educating young children with autism. At the root of these goals are societal desires and expectations about the benefits of education for all children and assumptions about what is important and what is possible to teach children with autistic spectrum disorders (p. 57).

In this paper, we wanted to reflect on the change made in the intervention with students with autism spectrum disorder in the Autonomous Region of Madeira (Portugal), which, in 2007, created the first structured teaching room for the education of these students, in a teaching school regular, where specialized teachers applied the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children program. Supported by qualitative research, we carried out semi-structured interviews (Flick, 2009) and respective content analysis (Bardin, 1995) with the children's families and professionals involved in this process, seeking to assess the circumstances and achievements achieved over these 16 years.