Attitudes towards Augmentative and Alternative Communication for young children with cerebral palsy = As atitudes dos cuidadores em rela o à utiliza o de Sistemas de Comunica o Alternativa e Aumentativa na intera o com crian as com paralisia cerebral

Considering that the use of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems (AACS) has been recommended for children who are severely impaired in their development of communicative abilities, it may be assumed that caregivers' attitudes toward AACS would be driven by children's degree of cognitive and linguistic impairments. To verify this, 40 dyads of children with cerebral palsy and their primary caregivers participated in this study evaluating children's degree of cognitive and linguistic impairments through the use of Battelle's questionnaire, and the caregivers' attitudes toward AACS by means of a Likert scale containing 15 items. Results showed that the provider's most negative attitudes toward the use of AACS were found among those caring for children with the most severe impairments. Pode admitir-se que o grau de limita o cognitiva e linguística de crian as com capacidades comunicativas gravemente prejudicadas condiciona as atitudes dos respectivos cuidadores, no uso de Sistemas de Comunica o Alternativa e Aumentativa (SCAA) que têm vindo a ser recomendados para facilitar a rela o com elas e promover o seu desenvolvimento. Para testar esta possibilidade, neste estudo averiguou-se qual a rela o entre o grau de limita o cognitiva e linguística de 40 crian as com paralisia cerebral, avaliado por meio do questionário de Batelle, e as atitudes dos respectivos cuidadores primários perante os SCAA, determinadas através de uma escala de Likert com 15 itens. Os resultados mostraram que as atitudes mais negativas face ao uso de SCAA foram manifestadas por cuidadores de crian as com limita es mais drásticas.