Nowadays, inclusive education remains a priority at both international and national level, because although policy guidelines are committed to good inclusive educational practices, exclusion and discrimination practices still exist. Specifically in Catalonia, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are enrolled in inclusive schools, but often attend specific Intensive Support for Inclusive Education classrooms, in order to receive more individualised support due to the difficulties characteristic of this disorder. One of the main difficulties of students with ASD is social skills, hence the school is seen as an effective and ecologically valid environment for improving social outcomes for these children and the teacher is seen as a key figure in facilitating the inclusion process. Besides, children with ASD also have got other associated difficulties, such as linguistic or cognitive impairment, then from neuropsychology is suggested that executive functions may affect both cognitive development and social skills. However, teachers highlight that they lack the resources and specific knowledge to enable these children to develop in a holistic way. Thus, the general objective of the research is to propose psycho-pedagogical intervention strategies that allow improve the social skills of students with ASD, and facilitating the inclusion process in schools with these students. The research follows the phenomenological paradigm, being a mixed quantitative-qualitative research. The resulting sample consisted of 40 students from three primary schools in Catalonia, 20 of whom were diagnosed with ASD. A total of 118 teachers from the three schools also participated and 12 educational professionals were interviewed. Based on the results obtained, some of the conclusions are: 1) There is a relationship between language acquisition, executive functions and intellectual abilities, being executive functions as an adjusted clinical marker in this population; 2) Participation, learning, school success, verbal communication and the practice of social skills are fostered in the classroom; 3) Students with high-functioning ASD have greater opportunities for interaction with their normotypical peers; 4) There is a need to strengthen the inclusive culture by improving attitudes and misconceptions that teachers may have; 5) There is a need to provide teacher training focused on inclusion, ASD and to establish changes in inclusive policies; 6) There is a need to improve the different forms of support, involving the educational community; 7) The degree of implementation of methodological strategies is linked to the level of structuring of spaces and activities in which students with ASD participate, the role of teachers and the typology of curricular activities; and 8) The role of teachers depends on the intensity of support and its location in the classroom. Finally, the research concludes by offering a list of activities that favour the social skills, intellectual abilities, executive functions and language of each child, as well as proposing specific strategies to increase the level of inclusion within the regular classrooms of each school.
Desenvolupament de les competències socials en l'alumnat amb TEA dins l'escola inclusiva.
Fortuny Guasch, R. (Author). 28 Mar 2022
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis