CRestless, hyperactive, dyslexic or learning-disabled children in elementary school are an increasingly common problem. It starts with complaints from teachers and school coordinators and, after the problem reaches the family, comes the medical diagnosis: dyslexia, hyperactivity or another related problem. Educator Ynayah Souza de Araújo Teixeira felt the problem firsthand: she had four children with learning disorders at school.

Dyslexia and hyperactivity
are between the problems

“It was a long and traumatic process, with referrals to neurologists, speech therapists, pedagogues, psychologists and speech therapists. Everyone indicated the need for therapies, tests and medications to try to overcome the situation. I asked if the problems were my children’s or if it was the school that raised them,” she says.

Ynayah then decided to look for elements in the Pedagogy course that would clarify the dilemma. Not only did she manage to change her own story – all her children attended public universities – but she also reported, in her master's thesis presented at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM), together with the Child and Adolescent Health Program, stories of children who suffered and suffer this process.

The research addresses the possibilities for these children to overcome stories of school failure through the adoption of appropriate pedagogical practices by the school. Currently, Ynayah is a teacher at a private educational institution, transforming what she experienced in her experience as a mother and teacher into research.

“I believe in confronting medicalization through pedagogical work. I know that the reports can help many people who are going through the same situation,” she notes. Guided by professor Maria Aparecida Affonso Moyses, she interviewed teachers, parents and students from the sixth to the ninth year of elementary school at the school where she teaches. All of the children interviewed suffered a process of medicalization, that is, they were students diagnosed and labeled as having a disorder or illness that prevented learning and who were referred to health professionals.

According to Ynayah, there is a transfer of responsibilities, as the problem becomes the problem of the child and, consequently, the family. “The school transfers its responsibility and the child has no alternative but to incorporate the disease. The child is stigmatized, which leads to many other problems, including self-esteem, as they believe that their learning difficulties are a consequence of their personal limitations”, he warns.

Diagnoses and labels at school, explains the teacher, are often linked to the fact that the student has illegible handwriting, makes mistakes in Portuguese, does not sit still or is undisciplined. The researcher does not ignore the fact that there are children who need monitoring, but she questions the fads created around the situation. “Any problem detected at school is seen as a disorder, as a child’s illness. Some “truths” have already crystallized and need to be revised. It is necessary to open new paths for solutions”, she believes.

One example is that in interviews with teachers, she identified different perspectives on the same problem. Many saw the student's possibilities and not just their impediments. “The attitude of these teachers was decisive for the child’s response”, she highlights. In the three cases analyzed by the pedagogue, she believes that this attitude was important for the children to experience success stories, including passing the selection process for high school, the so-called entrance exam.