LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND CEREBRAL PALSY: NEUROSCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE

The aim of this article is to analyze the language acquisition process of a 6th year elementary school student with cerebral palsy. For this, as methodological procedures, interviews were conducted with the student's mother and teacher, in addition to monitoring in the classroom. The discussions in this article are based on the works of Functional Linguistics (NEVES, 2010; MARTELOTTA, 2009; BERTOQUE; CASSEB-GALVAO, 2015), on cognitive studies (DOIDGE, 2015), on human physiology studies (DANGELO; FATTINI, 2011; BERNE; LEVY, 2009; GUYTON; HALL, 2011; VAN DE GRAAFF, 2003) and in neuroscientific studies related to Education (COSENZA; GUERRA, 2011; RELVAS, 2012; FLOR; CARVALHO, 2012). It starts from the concept that language has a biological basis and, fundamentally, it is a phenomenon developed in the processes of social interaction. However, in individuals with cerebral palsy, language learning can be affected, because the palsy consists of permanent lesions that affect the motor and intellectual functionality of the brain. Thus, we sought to investigate which factors were determinant for the student's language acquisition with regard to speech articulation and understanding. Given the existence of limitations in the biological apparatus, due to paralysis, the hypothesis of this work is that, through social interaction, it was possible to develop language.