Autism in Brazil: a study on the view of Basic Education teachers

Abstract

The United Nations highlights that the number of autistic people in the world is steadily increasing. In this context, schools continue to enroll autistic children, but are not prepared to provide the necessary care these students require. Objective: to verify teachers’ views in relation to Autistic Spectrum Disorder and their need for professional development and training in order to better support these students and the challenges they face in school settings. Method: to support this study, we used a digital questionnaire, a bibliographic review and scientific articles by reference authors in the field. Thus, a study was carried out with 119 teachers in Basic Education, based on an online survey with five questions. Resulting data was presented by means of graphs generated by the digital questionnaire. Results: the results were demonstrated through five graphs and analyzed in a descriptive way, guided by reference authors in the field of study. Conclusion: Although there is a law that states the need for teacher training in inclusive education, in view of the diagrams exhibited in the present research, we concluded that most of the teachers approached do not have solid knowledge about ASD, which directly impacts the student in class.