Adaptation of curricular activities as a form of inclusion - an experience report

Abstract

Inclusive education implies a bilateral commitment between people with and without disability. The activities in preschool education, such as the exploration of children's stories, nursery rhymes and songs, are special moments of knowledge sharing, linguistic development, social interaction and emotional improvement. Truly sharing these moments means sharing channels of communication between the interlocutors to provide an effective exchange of information between sender and receiver. Following this principle, during a school year, a set of activities was adapted in accordance with the needs of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), so that they could be performed in a class context targeted at children both with and without developmental disorders. This adaptation, based on linguistic simplification/structuring and the provision of multimodal information, fulfilled one of the fundamental principles of the Salamanca Statement, namely that students with and without problems should learn together. This resulted in a more active and effective involvement of the 4 children with ASD in the dynamics of the class, as well as better ability by their colleagues to deal with other realities, fostering early social and civic concerns and competences