This study was conducted at a special school for children with autism and developmental disabilities. The study consists of three interviews where pedagogues have different experiences of working with children in need of special support. The aim is to get an idea of how teachers think about working with children autism, but above all to find out what methods and educational tools that are used, and why they are used to best motivate students to a rewarding education. Sense of coherence (SOC) is a central concept and a theoretical basis of the study relating to the student to create comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in life. All of these three are essential for the student to find a predictable environment. From the result shows how schools and teachers use different methods and different tools, but both have a focus to help the student find motivation in the learning process. Pedagogues mentions three pedagogical tools where two of them get a little more space in the paper. The pedagogues tell how they think about the various tools and intention of these in the process of helping the student in the quest to find the motivation and meaningfulness in school and life. It is important to highlight the need for special education for children with special needs where special school is an institution that offers expertise in this. Something that makes a big impression is the discussion of how education and training should be tailored along each student's abilities and needs. The pedagogue dialogue is easy to attach to the policy in their operations, curriculum for special school (2011). One pedagogue also expresses this to be a living document which will also serve as support staff in the business.

This study evaluated whether picture exchange communication system (PECS) training would result in the development of conditional relations among corresponding pictures, objects (reinforcers) and spoken words used in PECS training with learners with developmental disabilities. Three participants with autism and mental retardation were trained to use PECS. Match-to-sample procedures were used to assess all possible conditional relations among stimuli before, during, and after PECS training. None of the three participants in this study acquired conditional discriminations involving the pictures, reinforcers, and spoken words used in their PECS training.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) has been used with children with autism and other developmental disabilities as an alternative to vocal communication. Some researchers have reported rapid acquisition of picture-exchange requesting as well as increased vocal speech and increased spontaneous social interactions following PECS training. Earlier research has found that although 3 children with autism learned to exchange pictures for preferred items during PECS training, requesting topographies did not change and vocal speech did not increase after PECS training. The present study evaluated the effects of PECS training on requesting topographies, especially vocal speech, with 3 participants with autism and mental retardation. Only one participant maintained picture-exchange requesting, and none of the participants showed an increase in vocal speech during probe sessions conducted after each PECS training phase.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:46:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6625.pdf: 4166870 bytes, checksum: be3e580d0e4836b2730b6d56fc4026ff (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-24 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The Augmentative and Aumentative Communication (AAC) is an area of assistive technology that seeks to facilitate the participation of people in different communicative contexts. There is a variety of techniques and methods one of them Picture Exchange Communication (PECS) that proposes to develop communication skills within the social context. Associated with the implementation of PECS, some research has shown benefits of using Video Modeling (VM) that consists a teaching technique that search the development of academic, social, communication and daily leaving skills for individuals of various disabilities. The objective of this study was to apply and analyze the effects of PECS associated with the VM on the development of communication skills of children with Down syndrome. To this end, we selected three participants in a special school in one city in the state of São Paulo, aged between nine and 12 who were diagnosed as Down syndrome and complex communication needs. The following instruments were used in this study: Assessment of Communication Skills was used to evaluate functional communication skills the child; Protocol for Communication Skills Assessment in a school environment with the objective to identify the communication skills of the student in the school environment from the perception of teachers; Vocabulary selection spread sheet with the objective to identify reinforcing objects; Record Sheet that informed participants' performance during the intervention process; Vocabulary sheet monitored the vocabulary of the participants during the intervention; Chart Qualitative Performance was used as a field diary in order to record observations during the intervention process and the Social Validity of questionnaire with the objective to evaluate the perceptions of parents and teachers of the participants about the intervention. In order to verify the effects of the intervention it used Multiple Baseline Design cross subjects including three phases: baseline, intervention, and maintenance, in which the PECS associated with the VM was the independent variable and communication skills constituted the dependent variable. Data were analyzed considering some aspects such as the participant's performance, monitoring vocabulary, level of independence in the baseline, intervention and maintenance steps. The results showed that participants' performance was satisfactory both in respect of each phase and with respect to all the learning process intervention. The level of independence remained above average throughout the training for the three participants, in other words, they understood what they must do in each session of each phase without the aid of the communication partner or physical stimulator. There was an increase in the vocabulary of the three participants, although each of them with his own specificities and development of language, it is noted that the use of the pictures served as a support for the increase in this vocabulary words and phrases formulations through both figures as through speech. Thus, the present study showed a possibility of intervention that favored the participants with Down syndrome, demonstrating that the PECS associated with the VM promoted the development of communication skills, both in speech production as in the use of the figure as a form of communication. / A Comunicação Suplementar e Alternativa (CSA) é uma área da tecnologia assistiva que busca facilitar a participação das pessoas nos vários contextos comunicativos. Há uma variedade de técnicas e métodos em CSA uma delas é o Sistema de Comunicação por Troca de Figuras (PECS), que tem como propósito aumentar as habilidades de comunicação dentro do contexto social. Associado à aplicação do PECS, algumas pesquisas têm demonstrado benefícios do uso do Video Modeling (VM) que consiste em uma técnica de ensino voltada às habilidades de comunicação social, vida diária e desempenho acadêmico para indivíduos das mais variadas deficiências. A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo aplicar e analisar os efeitos do PECS associado ao VM em relação ao desenvolvimento das habilidades de comunicação em crianças com síndrome de Down. Para tanto, foram selecionados três participantes de uma escola especial de um município do interior paulista, com idades variando entre nove e 12 anos que apresentavam diagnóstico de síndrome de Down, além de necessidades complexas de comunicação. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: Avaliação das Habilidades de Comunicação que teve por finalidade avaliar as competências de comunicação funcional da criança; Protocolo para a Avaliação de Habilidades Comunicativas em ambiente escolar que objetivou identificar as habilidades comunicativas do aluno em ambiente escolar a partir da percepção dos professores; Planilha de seleção de vocabulário que objetivou identificar os itens reforçadores; Folha de Registro que informou o desempenho dos participantes durante o processo de intervenção; Folha de Vocabulário monitorou o vocabulário dos participantes durante a intervenção; Quadro Qualitativo do Desempenho foi utilizado como um diário de campo com a finalidade de registrar observações durante o processo de intervenção e o Questionário de Validade Social que teve por finalidade avaliar a percepção dos pais e professores dos participantes quanto à intervenção. Para tanto, empregou-se o delineamento experimental de linha de base múltipla cruzando com sujeitos (linha de base, intervenção e manutenção), sendo o PECS associado ao VM a variável independente e as habilidades de comunicação se constituíram na variável dependente. Os dados foram analisados considerando alguns aspectos como o desempenho dos participantes, monitoramento do vocabulário e nível de independência nas etapas de linha de base, intervenção e manutenção. Os resultados indicaram que o desempenho dos participantes foi satisfatório, tanto em relação a cada fase, como em relação à aprendizagem de todo o processo de intervenção. O nível de independência se manteve acima da média durante todo o treinamento para os três participantes, ou seja, conseguiram compreender o que precisavam fazer em cada sessão de cada fase sem o auxílio do parceiro de comunicação ou do estimulador físico. Observou-se um aumento no vocabulário dos três participantes, embora cada qual com suas especificidades e desenvolvimento de linguagem própria, foi possível perceber que o uso da figura serviu de apoio para o aumento de vocabulário presente nas formulações de palavras e frases tanto por meio das figuras como por meio da fala. Dessa forma, o presente estudo apresentou uma possibilidade de intervenção que favoreceu os participantes com síndrome de Down, demonstrando que o PECS associado ao VM promoveu o desenvolvimento das habilidades de comunicação, tanto na produção da fala como no uso da figura como forma de comunicação.

The thesis deals with the setting of functional communication using the Picture Exchange Communication System method at people with autism spectrum disorder through individual levels of education and is divided into the theoretical and the practical part. The key terms explaining the problematic of autism, significance of communication and education of people with autism spectrum disorder introduces the theoretical part which is split into a few areas. The main overarching is the Picture Exchange Communications System methods which compensates the disorder in communication of an individual with autism spectrum disorder either temporarily or permanently. Furthermore, based on the interviews with participants in the educational process, the thesis analyzes the application of the method and cooperation of the individual educational institutions but also parents. In the empirical part are the interviews complemented by the case study which completes the whole picture of research problem in question. The output of the thesis are recommendations compared with the results of the conducted research. The area of education of individuals with autism spectrum disorder is one of the most difficult pedagogical disciplines regarding to attention, individual approach, environment modification and at the same time...

This diploma thesis deals with alternative and augmentative communication systems using at the individuals with pervasive development disorders. Thesis is divided the theoretical and the experimental part. Theoretical part contains mainly informations about communication disability, speech development, diagnosis of communication abilities, alternative and augmentative communication systems and possibilities of aid to the families with child with pervasive development disorder. Experimental part presents research using questionnaire, which was send to the parents or legal representatives with child with pervasive development disorder. The research prepares base for next extensive researchs.