A criança com deficiência institucionalizada e o ensino de habilidades básicas: um estudo de caso

This case study was designed to verify changes on the behavioral repertoire occurred with a child with disability, abandoned and institutionalized, after undergoing a procedure focused on the teaching of new basic skills. The participant was a seven-year-old girl with severe developmental delay, who was living in an institution that houses people with disabilities. First, an evaluation of the initial repertoire of the child was done (baseline), by applying a protocol of basic skills, which allowed researchers to determine which conducts would be taught during the program for acquisition of basic skills. In order to verify any changes in the participant’s behavioral repertoire, evaluations were made every two weeks. The follow up of the results was done by a multiple baseline design across behaviors. The biweekly evaluations showed an increase on the frequency of the behaviors been taught through implementation of the teaching program. The increase was not observed on other behaviors, which indicates that the changes were probably a result of the intervention applied. The results showed that the participant was able to learn new basic skills, even though residing in an institutional environment which wasn’t favorable for the learning of new behaviors. Keywords: teaching procedures; basic skills; disabilities; institutionalized children