This article presents part of a study that analyzed the concepts, feelings and attitudes of children without disabilities about mental retardation and inclusion and evaluated the effects of an informative program that deals with the issue. The study included forty children from two first grade classrooms in a public school in Marília-SP. One classroom participated as a control group. All children underwent pre and post tests in the form of interviews on the subject and a scale of children's social attitudes towards inclusion was applied. The experimental group participated in the informative program, composed of thirteen weekly meetings, in which the limitations and possibilities of people with mental retardation, specialized care, their schooling and family and social aspects, were discussed, using various educational and recreational strategies. The data collected in the interviews were categorized and content analysis was conducted. With the scale, individual scores were obtained. Statistical calculations were performed to verify the significance of differences between groups. In this paper we discuss the data obtained with the scale which were crossed with interview data. The results of the interviews and the scale indicated several changes in children's attitudes towards inclusion, but relations between many of these data could not be statistically confirmed. These results indicate the importance of expanding the research on the relationship between the phenomena presented.
Special Education; Inclusion; Social Attitudes; Programs
