Breaking the Silence: The Children with High-Functioning Autism Perspective About Their Needs Within Their Classroom and School Context in Salvador da Bahia

This chapter was developed after a three-month exchange program (Research Tandem), which took place in Salvador da Bahia—Brazil, with a partnership between UiO and UFBA. The aim of this chapter is to analyse the needs of children diagnosed with high-functioning autism educated in public schools in Salvador da Bahia. The authors interviewed six children with high-function autism with the intention of investigating what their needs are through their own words, voices and experiences. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle to establish social relationships, face trouble trying to recognise and understand complex emotions, and their oral communication skills may be problematic since sometimes they are unable to express what they are feeling verbally (Ali and Saad in Int J Psycho-Educ Sci (6), 2017). Also, they tend to be more sensitive to sensory stimuli such as loud noises or direct light. Nonetheless, they are physically included in regular classrooms; hence, the authors aim to analyse what the needs of this minoritarian part of the population are–regarding their scholarly context—and whether those are being covered. As mentioned previously, individuals with ASD struggle to recognise certain emotions and to talk about them; therefore, in order to ensure the comfort of the participants, this study uses a combination of drawings produced by the participants and a semi-structured interview guided by their drawings. The methodology had a positive outcome, allowing the students to express their needs and feelings in their classrooms and schools. Although every participant experienced their needs in different manners, there were some common points: the need to feel included, the need for support and representation and the need for having appropriate teaching methods. This paper addresses a current gap in the research field—which, for the most part, approaches this topic from the perspective of teachers, principals or parents. So, with the intention of doing this research differently, the authors listened directly to the voices of a silenced part of the population, in this case, children with high-functioning autism.