La declinabilità didattica del group-based early start Denver model (G-ESDM) nella scuola dell'infanzia

Abstract

The Autism Spectrum Disorder is today the most studied phenomenon in the world, its complexity and the mystery that has always enveloped it have meant that over time all the research domains were interested in its study. Despite the scientific advances and the sophisticated technologies developed for the study of the human genome and of brain functioning, the causes of the ASD remain unknown. However, all the Countries of the world are in agreement that a crucial role for people with autism spectrum disorder are the early educational models and early intervention programs. Where it is not possible to identify and intervene on the causes of the disturbance, the human responsibility bears the responsibility to ensure people, but primarily children, with autism spectrum disorder adequate measures of intervention, support and development in a perspective of permanent guidance and of long-life learning. The need felt within the national context is to identify, through specific research activities, "good educational practices" for students with autism spectrum disorder, in order to be able then to propose to the curriculum teachers and support for the improvement of their operational skills. On the national territory, interesting research has begun to experiment the possible application of interventions born in the international field. In fact, many of the interventions are on a clinical-therapeutic level - ABA, Discrete Trail Training, Verbal Behavior Teaching, Developmental, Individual-differences, Relationship-based model - because the courses that are proposed aim at train therapists able to work in a one-on-one relationship with children with autism. Other interventions, on the other hand, have been deepened and experimented within the educational context - Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Picture Exchange Communication System, Video-modeling - and provide teachers with useful guidelines for working with children with autism spectrum disorder. Among the intervention models developed at international level, and suggested by the Ministry in training courses for teachers, the Early Start Denver Model emerges, a model of global intervention, intensive and early for children with autism spectrum disorder developed by Sally J. Roger and Geraldine Dawson. It is considered evidence-based practice and incorporates evolutionary-relational models with techniques and practices of Applied Behavioral Analysis and Pivotal Responsive Training. Starting from this model in 2017 it has been developed, by Giacomo Vivanti, Ed Duncan, Geraldine Dawson and Sally J. Rogers, the Group-Based Early Start Denver Model, intervention model implemented in kindergarten and aimed at children with autism. It is precisely this model that focuses on the feasibility study presented in this work. The research work is configured as a feasibility study aimed at investigating, through the analysis of the scientific literature of reference, the acceptability, implementation, adaptation and integration of the Group-Based Early Start Denver Model within the school of Italian childhood. A feasibility study conducted starting from the analysis of the presented elements represents, in agreement with the principles of the Index for Inclusion, the first step for the development of a possible future research: even before planning an experimentation in the didactic field it is essential to reflect on the theories underlying the model, on the socio-cultural values that the intervention model contains, on the political and legislative constraints that could hinder experimentation and declinability. [edited by author]