Between enrolment and inclusion: challenges in the teaching and learning of autistic children in early childhood education

Abstract

This article examines the challenges of the teaching and learning process of autistic children in early childhood education, focusing on the gap between the right to schooling guaranteed by Brazilian legislation and the actual conditions for its realisation in the mainstream classroom. Through a narrative literature review of a theoretical and conceptual nature, three bodies of reference are articulated: the normative framework of inclusive education in Brazil, pedagogical scholarship on mediation and curricular adaptation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the psychoanalytic contribution concerning the constitutive function of school. It is argued that enrolment in mainstream education, while a necessary condition, is not sufficient: when unaccompanied by methodological adaptation, teacher training and a clear definition of support staff duties, it produces an arrangement described here as integration without inclusion — the child occupies the school space without taking part in pedagogical activity. The article further discusses play as a route of access to learning and family participation as a variable associated with development. It concludes that realising this right depends less on additional legal provisions than on converting existing ones into everyday pedagogical practice.