The role of information and communication technologies in the development of children with special needs: perceptions and challenges of social educators in a school context

In current society, which is in constant evolution, the technological dimension assumes a predominant role. In this context, empowering children with specific needs for autonomy and developing their personal, social and digital skills should be a priority for social educators, as socio-educational intervention professionals in the school context. Thus, the present article exposes and discusses data resulting from a research where we wanted to identify and analyse the perception of Portuguese social educators about the practices of information and communication technologies in the personal and social development of children with specific needs, in Portuguese schools, as well as to understand if they feel updated on this theme and which are the difficulties felt. To guide our research, we have opted for a quantitative approach, using a questionnaire survey, carried out online through the Google Forms programme, in an anonymous and confidential way. In this research, 78 social educators working in school contexts with children with SN participated. The main results indicate that social educators, as socio-educational intervention professionals, feel the need for continuous training to update themselves so as to provide a better response to the needs of these children through more attractive socio-educational practices.