inclusion in public school education brings forth relevant discussions that pertain to the new social paradigm, especially for children with Down syndrome, whose developmental processes are increasingly studied. The aim of this study is to verify and analyze the social interaction of children with Down syndrome with typically developing children in the regular early childhood education system in a medium-sized city in the state of São Paulo. The participants in the study were six children with Down syndrome, aged three to six years (study group) and six same age typically developing children attending the same classes as the children with Down Syndrome (comparison group). Each child was studied according to categories that involved the process of social interaction in the school environment. The results showed that, in general, there were no significant differences between the relevant behaviors shown by the study group and the comparison group. The behaviors that were significantly different were: "The child establishes initial contact with others" (p = 0.017), that was more frequent in the comparison group "The child imitates other children" (p = 0.030), that was more frequent in the study group. The study concluded that, for the age range of the study, the the group of children with Down Syndrome did not present social interaction features strikingly different from the typically developing children in the study. The study reinforces the importance of inclusive education for this group of children.
Inclusive Education; Down Syndrome; Social Interaction
