Abstract

In the teaching area, the contributions done by Social Semiotics, Systemic Functional Linguistics and Multimodality are presented as theoretical and methodological tools to analyze the communicative interactions in the teaching context. Among the diversity of experiences and ways of communication that are presented in schools, the ones related to autism can also be found. This study approaches school from the inclusive education paradigm, it´s main objective is to describe the semiotic resources being used by a student with autism spectrum attending to a special education school in Viña del Mar, Chile. This case study research is carried out by videotaping the social interaction of the student during four weeks in a row. For the multimodal analysis, the notions of field, tenor and mode are being considered along with the exchange of meaning (interpersonal metafunction), mainly focusing in the resource “down to the floor”, being the latter the most frequent one and which functions are strongly differentiated. The main resources being identified answer to the two basic options of exchange: offer and/or demand, either goods and services or information, which the student makes constant use of among the different school settings. Encompassed by the projections, it can be highlighted by the different interpretations of interaction, that the student’s quality of life can indeed be enhanced, providing a favorable learning setting; thus, validating the student’s interactions not as a disruptive behavior but as a primary resource of communication known by their immediate environment