A criança com Síndrome de Down e o número: uma proposta de atividades inclusivas de contagem

Abstract

Today, in common schools, the inclusion of children with disabilities is inprocess, and the laws that support this policy guarantee the right of access, permanence and learning to all school age children, regardless of their specificities. With the purpose of contributing to the the inclusion of a student with Down Syndrome, in the process of mathematical education, this qualitative research in the mode of participant observation was developed in basic education, in the first year of elementary school I, in a public school of the city of Barbacena, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. All the research was embedded on Vygotsky and colleagues’the sociocultural perspective; the analysis were also based on Goos's view of Valsiner's zone theory. In order to fulfill this purpose, this work begins with observations of pedagogical practices and actions of the students in the mathematics classes and later assists in the understanding of mathematical abilities that are being worked in the inclusive process of the child with Down Syndrome. It identifies the facilities and difficulties of this educational process with the objective of guiding the production of a repertoire of inclusive pedagogical mathematics activities, involving numbers and operations with an emphasis on counting skills. This repertoire of activities involves all learners and benefits equal access to participation for children with Down Syndrome. The activities were developed considering the specificities of the student with Down Syndrome and the real developments of the students of the class, allowing everyone to participate in the same activities. As a result we could observe an increase in participation, attention, and good resourcefulness of learners. The student with Down Syndrome showed greater interest to the new activities, attention and independence in the resolution of tasks; interacted more with classmates and with the regent teacher, and even with the help of the support teacher in the necessary moments, there was more initiative in executing what was proposed to her. In addition to the changes in their participation in the Zone of Promoted Action and in the Zone of Free Movement, there have been changes in their zone of imminent development (ZDI). This repertoire of inclusive pedagogical activities constituted the educational product − a requirement for the completion of the Professional Master's Degree − is a printed material in the form of a magazine that will be made available to schools.