The production of educational games for students with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the situations established in the planning and application of games for students with intellectual disabilities and autism spectrum disorder in the Specialized Educational Services (AEE), taking into account the learning singularities of the students studied. The proposed study was developed in the Multifunctional Resource Room (SRM), in a municipal school that serves the initial years of Elementary Education and took place in four moments: knowledge of the academic history of the students, participants of the research, through semi-structured interviews with the AEE teacher and legal guardians; Observation of the pedagogical practices and the dialogues established in the Multifunctional Resource Room; Collaborative participation in planning with the AEE teacher to develop games; Application of the games with analysis of the details of the learning processes of the students investigated. Three students with autism, three students with intellectual disabilities, an AEE teacher and the legal guardians of the students participated in the research. These students were taught in groups predefined by the teacher at the beginning of the school year, according to the proximity of the school year in which they studied, based on the singularities/characteristics observed in each group, and the games were planned collectively with the AEE teacher. The historical-cultural perspective developed by Vygotsky (2000a, 2000b, 2007) supported the study proposed here, given his contributions on the learning process of people with disabilities, highlighting the importance of alternative paths and special resources. It is concluded that educational games, designed based on the perceptions and singularities of students, are an element that contributes to the learning process of students with ID and ASD, as they make it possible to enhance learning according to the field of interest and with challenges that meet the abilities and difficulties of students.