“Famiglie in acqua”: un’esperienza “sportiva” orientata allo sviluppo globale di soggetti con disturbi dello spettro autistico

This paper describes an empirical research inspired by an ethnomethodological approach, through which an educational project, designed for families with autism spectrum disorders children, was investigated. Both the epistemic work, and the didactic path, focus on a particular type of action: the spontaneous one, defined as “play signs” because it is considered as playful communication.The latter is easily recognizable, because it is an expressions freely issued by a person, therefore stand out in contrast to a non-spontaneous action. By adopting the Motor Praxeology theoreticalframework, playful signs were analysed and classified as elements of a precise “praxeological code”. That operation seems extremely useful, in order to precisely evaluate some dimensions,such as: type of action, particularly in relation to the context; development of both individual child and the group; educational offer’s impact. Evidences show that the project it appears consistentwith the expected goals, confirming that the stimuli provided by games played in a swimming pool context, are effective for the improvement of participants’ communication development and autonomy. In other words, the study did not limit itself to the project’s efficacy approval, but to show elements and methods able to achieve the expected aims.