Child Medicalization in the School Context: implications in the care and education process

Abstract

In this article is discussed aspects of the doctoral research produced through the progressive/regressive method to study the implications of the medicalization and pathologization of children in educational processes in early childhood education in the city of Criciúma/SC. In formal education there is a tendency towards medicalization, a phenomenon that often transforms situations of school difficulties with pedagogical or social origin into pathological conditions. Diagnoses are often used by professionals inadequately to explain these processes. Although ADHD has been frequently identified in the literature review, in the field of this research, it is the ASD that prevails. As a consequence, there is an increase in the use of medications by children and students in general. Systematic literature review was accomplished and demarcated materials published in the period from 2009 to 2019, which allowed to reflect on themes that emerge from empirical research and that indicate medicalizing practices, such as referrals of children to the School Psychology Sector and the growing number of children with ASD diagnosis. The systematic review focused on the Portal CAPES of Periodic and on the UFSC dissertation and thesis data collection. As a possibility of overcoming, is presented socio-historical psychology that understands the individual is constructed in relational processes and emphasizes the importance of understanding the child, the activities and the school environment in an interdisciplinary way, before opting for a pathological diagnosis.