Adaptação escolar de crianças com deficiência visual na educação infantil na perspectiva das famílias

Abstract

Children Education is considered a fundamental stage for the integral development of children. In the process of entering school, they go through school adaptation, which is also experienced directly by families and education professionals. It can be experienced with more intensity and challenges by families of children with disabilities, as is the case of families with children who are blind or have low vision. Given this, the present study aimed to: describe the process of school adaptation of children with visual impairments in Children Education, according to the family's opinion; analyze the feelings experienced by families in the process of school adaptation in Children Education for children with visual impairments; identify the services offered by the school and the adaptations made for children with visual impairments in Children Education, according to the families' opinion; identify the gains in the development of children with visual impairments, after entering Children Education. Three mothers of visually impaired children of preschool age enrolled in regular Children Education participated in the research. Participants responded to an online interview based on a semi-structured script. The research had a descriptive and exploratory nature and underwent content analysis. The results showed that all children entered daycare before the age of three and that the main reasons for enrolling were the parents' need to return to the job market, clinical indication, and parents' desire or convictions. Regarding the enrollment process, all mothers provided some information about the children's needs, but only one school agreed to schedule a meeting with the mother, the pedagogical team and a specialized professional to discuss the demands and adaptations for the child, as the other mothers were not called even though they requested or delivered the report. The main feelings experienced by the participants in this process were enthusiasm, insecurity, anguish, fear, acceptance, security, hope and happiness. The three children experienced the adaptation in a unique way, just as the three schools conducted this process in different ways. Only one school had a Special Education team and offered assistance in the multifunctional resource room, a service classified as being of excellent quality by the mother. None of the schools made any type of change to the structure for physical accessibility. A3 papers, inclined planes, tactile materials, sensory adaptations and differentiated attention were some of the strategies mentioned by two participants to make classes more accessible to their children. All mothers observed positive changes in their children's development after entering school, with a focus on socialization and exploration, and agreed that a good relationship between family and school was an essential factor for successful school adaptation, especially when it involved children with visual impairment. It is concluded that the scenario of inclusion of children with visual impairment in Children Education still requires improvements in practice, such as greater awareness among school teams and investment in the training and preparation of teachers, support services, resources and physical accessibility, as well as such as greater openness of schools to agreements with specialized teams.