Communication Assistants at School: What is the Reality during Covid-19?
Dania Malerba, Ilaria Bortolotti
This contribution will analyse perceptions and reality about the pedagogical approach to deafness from the point of view of the Communication and Autonomy Assistant (CA) for deaf students. 43 CAs working in Italy were invited to fill in a questionnaire which investigated expectations, difficulties and improvement needs in the school context. From the 29 answers, the need to define the CA’s roles at school, and consider a more incisive pedagogical and socio-relational training programme emerges. In this way, the CAs could be an active support for pupils and teachers, capable of actively combatting the attitudes of hostility and prejudice that came out in this study, restoring professional dignity and facilitating an adequate cognitive development for the deaf student, creating a more inclusive context.
Keywords
Communication assistants, Inclusion, Deafness, Training, School.
