Evaluation of activities during regular classroom with application of software to teach reading and writing for autistic students

• Grant number: 11/23523-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Camila Domeniconi
• Grantee: Leticia Barbieri
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Reading and writing are considered important skills in the academic repertoire for any student. However, can be observed poor performances of these skills by students with intellectual retardation, included in regular school. The present project aims to plan, execute and evaluate the possibility of a collaborative teaching, with activities to be applied by regular teachers and special education teachers, aiming the reading learning by autistic students included in regular school. The activities will be based on the structure of teaching software, previously tested and approved in different contexts. The procedure is based on an alternating treatments design, to evaluate the following experimental conditions: 1) activities planned and applied by both, regular and special teachers (experimental condition AB); 2) only the computerized teaching of isolated words, applied by the special teacher (Condition A); 3) only the classroom activities, applied by the regular teacher (Condition B). The participants will be six learners with autism, and their regular and special teachers. The learners will receive training in three alternated conditions, during four units of reading teaching. The performances of learners will be evaluated with the use of a pre-test, pos test between each teaching unit, and follow-up, after finishing all the teaching units. Data analysis will be based on comparisons of the performance of each learner during each experimental condition. It will be expected that the results can be useful in the preparation of programs for teaching reading to children with autism, with the participation of formal and informal educational agents.(AU)