Contribuições da intervenção assistida por cão para uma criança com paralisia cerebral e deficiência intelectual

Abstract

The central purpose of this research is to present contributions from a canine assisted intervention (CAI) for the facilitation of the communication process of a child with cerebral paralysis associated with intellectual disability, within the context of an APAE (Associação dos Pais e Amigos dos Excepcionais). As for a theoretical support, this research has made use of studies by Vygotsky, particularly the concepts of mediation, the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and interaction. The methodological design has an exploratory and qualitative approach, based on a case study. The data for the study was generated in an APAE school environment, in a city from the Gaucho highlands, with a twelve-year old child with cerebral paralysis associated with intellectual disability. Video recorded pedagogical activities have taken place in a classroom with a child in the presence of a dog, amounting to 15 sessions. The constituted corpus was therefore analyzed through a process of analysis of the images, inspired by the textual discursive analysis, articulated with the aforementioned Vygotsky concepts, and encompassing the research question as guidance. Two emergent categories were originated from the analysis: signs of egocentric speech and mediation. The results indicated that the researcher’s intervention associated to the canine element, during the interaction with the child, seemed to interfere with the child’s ZPD enabling speech signs, which ranged from egocentric speech to autonomous and conscious speech, permeated by the effectiveness element, contributing to learning facilitation.