Um estudo sobre o uso da tecnologia assistiva no ensino de ciências para alunos com transtorno do espectro autista: criação do aplicativo e software educacional Casulo TEA

Abstract

This research discusses the process of development and validation of the application and software "Casulo TEA", which targets students with Autism Spectrum Disorder – ASD, the general objective was the creation of the Application and educational software, focused on the process of teaching and learning the theme of the human body. This program functions as an Assistive Technology, as it serves as a tool to support the teaching and learning process in science teaching. Both the application and the software are composed of the phases: skeleton; body parts; accessibility and hygiene. This work is a case study, and a qualitative research, conducted with three students with ASD, nine science teachers and a Psychopedagogist as collaborators, in a federal college in the state of Pará. The investigation had the theoretical contribution of Vygotsky on learning and development; of Mantoan (2011; 2019); of Chiote (2019); Pletsch and Damasceno (2009) and Ferrari (2012) to address the issue of education, from an inclusive perspective; of Mól (2019) to work on Science teaching from an inclusive perspective; of Bersch (2017) and Ávila et al. (2013) on Assistive Technology; and Chassot (2000) for scientific literacy; among others. With this theoretical framework, the author problematizes the teaching and learning process of the curricular component of Sciences, aboute the "Human Body", and performs the validation test, with three students with ASD, with different levels of the disorder. In the elaboration of the "Casulo", it was decided to use multimedia audio and video resources, in order to work attention and concentration of students through sensory resources. The results of the application/validation of the "Casulo TEA" was confirmed, both in relation to its applicability and its functionality, in both results were positive, exceeding expectations, significant results were obtained, as it was verified the relevance of the application and the software for serving as "mediators" of the learning process, since they were very specific, meeting the methodological demands of students with the three different degrees of ASD: severe, moderate and mild. Thus, the "Casulo TEA" assisted students in understanding the object of human body knowledge, because after the use of it, it was found that the students identified hygiene objects, body parts, function and classification of bones. Therefore, the "Casulo TEA" was considered as a tool to support the teaching and learning process for students with ASD. It is believed that these educational products, be able to mediate and enhance the teaching and learning process, assist in the autonomy of students, besides collaborating with the construction of knowledge about the human body for subjects with ASD, who, due to the disorder, have sensory specificities that can affect their body perceptions and their learning process, hence the importance of the work developed from the socio-historical perspective, based on Vygotsky (2001), which advocates the capacity of human learning through language mediation taking into account the cultural relationship of the human being with the world in which it is inserted.