A Child with cerebral palsy in arts education programmes: building scaffoldings for inclusion

Abstract

In order to contribute to the Inclusive Education of Children with Special Needs in the Arts Education Programmes of Music in Portugal, an Action-Research project was started in 2018. With this work we intend to characterize the child that originated the study and to relate their characterization with studies obtained in the literature review, whose theme is the inclusion of children with Special Needs in music teaching. The studies considered highlighted some barriers and point out some facilitators to an effective inclusion. We also sought authors to help us reflect on the learning processes of the child, their development, the specific relationship between adult and child (scaffolding) and social interactions in the context in which they live. The analysis of "Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theory" and "Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Human Development" presented us with this possibility. Besides the literature review, nine interviews were carried out, considering the mother and the different education and health professionals who work with the child. All information compiled was organised and studied through content analysis supported by Computer-assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software on the webQDA platform. The results highlight the importance of using assistive technology, music software, adapted musical instruments, etc., in the learning of music, as we found in the literature. They also point out the need for individualised support (people), the need to promote the skills of the professionals working with the child, the accessibility of spaces and the adaptations of programmes. We propose the development of training courses to promote Inclusion.