Functional skills of children with deficiencies in school inclusion: barriers to effective inclusion

The scope of this article is to describe the disabilities of students in the process of inclusion by means of the PEDI - Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted. The population studied included 181 students (7-10 years old) from 31 public schools in São Paulo. Using a questionnaire applied to the caregiver, 197 activities were evaluated in the areas of self-care, mobility and social function. In accordance with the PEDI, differences (p < 0.05) in student performance were observed between grades in the scales of self-care (average of 77.8% in the 1st grade and 95.2% in the 4th grade) and mobility (average of 90% in the 1st grade and 99.8% in the 4th grade); social function had the lowest averages, except for those with physical disabilities, in which the most affected area was mobility (average of 62.7%). The PEDI enabled the identification of disabilities per group and individual disability, which may constitute an important tool for targeted intervention and follow-up at school.