As representações sociais do autismo entre professores e familiares cuidadores

Abstract

Some of the questions related to autism still motimate debates, mainly about its etiology, diagnostic and treatment. Its complexity and the differences between theoretic perspectives in the scientific area induce the construction of common sense theories about autism. This qualitative, exploratory and descriptive research had as goal, understand the social representations between parents and teachers of diagnosed children. Two studies were made with the participation of twelve teachers and twelve parents of diagnosed children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, important social actors in child development. Considering the public and private schools cenario, questionnaires were aplicated individually. The data were analyzed by the method of thematic subjects analysis. The first study had as goal to understand autism social representation between preschool teachers. It was found that the teachers represent the autism, above all, by features related to social and communication skills like agitation and problems at the development of oral language. The education practices, by other hand, focus on inclusion, not on the cognitive area. The second study revealed that the parents represent the TEA by different perspectives, denying that it is a deficiency or a disease, believing that it is a disability or that is a disorder.

Keyword: autism spectrum disorder. Teachers. Parentes. Family menbers. Social representations.