The shadow of diagnosis in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder – impacts on school life

Abstract

Over the past few years, we have observed an inflation of diagnoses in the school environment, identified as Disorders and Syndromes, based on the early identification of signs in increasingly younger children, under the influence of the biomedical perspective. This article, derived from a master's thesis in education, aims to reflect on the impact of the

diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a social label in the child's learning process. Specifically, it seeks to identify how referrals for children with suspected pathologies in early childhood education occur and to investigate what is done with the child's ASD diagnosis in

the institution. The study focuses on early childhood education, problematizing how the

biomedical perspective has become a bias in the schooling process. The research took place in Içara, Santa Catarina, at an Early Childhood Education Center (CEI), with the participants being the institution's director, 5 teachers, and the mother of one of the diagnosed children. The study was qualitative, and the research instrument was the semi-structured interview. Data analysis was conducted by categories, two of which are analyzed in this article: the protocol adopted by the CEI for making referrals; what is done with the ASD diagnosis at the CEI. The data show that referrals made by the researched school occur through teacher observation, without a specific structure or protocol to follow in referring the child to health services or specialists. Children are referred based on teachers' judgment in pedagogical meetings if they are deemed not to be in accordance with expected development. After the diagnosis, teachers take various actions with these children in the classroom. The centrality of the diagnosis is evident in these actions.