The trajectory of Laila in the AMA : intertwined stories / A trajetoria de Laila no AMA : historias entrelaçadas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

This research sought to understand which elements are important for working with people with disabilities. The problem that gave rise to this research was the absence of longitudinal studies with children with disabilities engaged in extra-curricular adapted motor activity programs. Therefore, it was decided to carry out a case study, with a qualitative, longitudinal approach which looks at empirical data to arrive at an understanding of child development, with different ways of looking at and of conducting activities. The case was chosen was the Adapted Motor Activity Program (AMA), at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), encompassing its working processes, the mode of development of each child and each child’s modes of interaction with the other children, with everyone’s families and with the program’s professionals. A specific person was chosen, suffering from behavioral disturbances, mental deficiency and epilepsy, not only because this was the greatest challenge, but also because this child’s trajectory has a relationship with the trajectories of other children that have attended the program over 10 years. Since its inception, this program has explicitly been based on the Bioecological Human Development theory. However, as this analysis progressed, it was possible to detect that the proposals and practices that had been developed at the AMA were founded on a combination of multiple theoretical references, transcending Bronfenbrenner’s own theory, and weaving a delicate and complex theoretical and epistemological web. Some of the most important elements in this puzzle are discussed: Developmental Physical Education, the dialectic concept of normality in the field of health and disease, the evaluation concept that contrasts with the submission to statistical, and frequently stereotypical, standards and the Evidential Paradigm Theory, systemized by Carlo Ginzburg. This theoretical foundation supports the analysis of empirical data– videos of classes taught and observed, field notes and parents’ comments, all drawn from the AMA database – making it possible to develop new ways of the perceiving and understanding the development of a child. These developmental processes were investigated, seeking indications, small changes, sometimes imperceptible, that show the changes and continuities in the interactions of the person developing, with people, objects and symbols. These had been gradually becoming more complex, becoming evidence. It was possible to understand these changes due to a new way of looking at the child, and because the project works with possibilities. This study made it possible to discern that, in a manner that is interrelated to the trajectory of this particular young person, AMA itself was also developing over these ten years, creating new ways of looking at children and adolescents and of proposing and conducting their activities and of assessing their development.

ASSUNTO(S)

deficientes atividade motora disabled persons human development desenvolvimento humano motor activity

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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