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"The title of the day was not random." With this phrase, the occupational therapist of the School integration program of the Captain Pastene school, Javiera Herrera, gave an account of the impact that the event had towards social inclusion: knowledge as the basis of empowerment, an event framed in a new day of Mental Disorder. Autism Spectrum (ASD) through the Florida Municipal Health and Education Corporation.
In this instance, the aspects of inclusion and integration were addressed and teaching diversification strategies were presented. Also, the topic of psychoeducation was discussed from diagnoses, myths, prejudices and alarm flags in the dimension of Autism Spectrum Conditions (AEC).
From this perspective, the therapist, Javiera Herrera, draws a disruptive perspective and cultural change when it comes to empowering and approaching children with ASD. For example, from a more respectful environment, where we stop seeing that the problem is in the child and begin to see that everything is found in the context. "If there is a child who is bothered by a particular noise and who is more sensitive to the auditory issue, he or she learns to generate self-regulation strategies," she says.
Then, he goes deeper with a practical milestone: "In the talk, someone asked me how we did it in the tremor rehearsals. Perhaps, the best thing was to isolate the children, have them not participate and have them be in a separate room. I told him "Why isolate them and not give them a partner to act as a tutor and thus make them part of the activity, but appealing to their own resources and not doing something differentiated for them?"
With all this, Javiera Herrera exemplifies how the flags of inclusion and integration can be strengthened even more. As a result, the occupational therapist at the Capitán Pastene school provides a revealing case: "A teacher told me that a child does not participate in mathematics, but he has an interest in the cardinal points. He is a second grade child. I told him that You can use his deep interest as motivation and instead of going to do the exercise (in a traditional way), he would not go to do the task to the Northwest of the board, but to the East."
For her part, the director of the Capitán Pastene school, Tamara Campos, explains that "for us this day was a great opportunity. We had been visualizing this for several months. We have been supporting it with the School Integration Program team for a long time and "It is within our internal management plans."
In relation to the thematic axes addressed in the talk, Campos affirms that there is the concept of teacher empowerment and how this term, through new practices in children, can be applicable to them so that greater social inclusion occurs. .
A scenario that can be visualized through applied strategies, such as "interpersonal relationships, the pedagogical part, and the adaptation of spaces."
From the Municipal Corporation of La Florida itself, specifically from the Education Area, the community coordinator of the School Integration Program (PIE), Sandra Núñez, addresses two central aspects of the day: how the concepts of inclusion and integration are strengthened to enhance to ASD children and how this synergy affects learning and teaching.
"One of the challenges of every educational community is to achieve inclusion. To achieve this, as a community, we are working throughout the year in different instances of work with management teams, teachers and professionals of school integration programs, strengthening inclusive practices and with concrete tools that constitute a real contribution to education," argues Núñez.
Then, the professional comments that they have experienced seminars and conferences where Universal Learning Design has an important role along with practical strategies.
"We opted and committed to strengthening inclusion since integration is already cemented, considering that inclusion never ends since we constantly receive students who need a new beginning," says the PIE community coordinator.
According to what Núñez points out, student learning is one of the fundamental focuses of education, which, through participatory, active and meaningful teaching, students acquire competencies and skills that strengthen this teaching process. learning.
And the PIE professionals ensure that students are beneficiaries of the work that special education educators, together with teachers, develop in the common classroom after collaborative work and articulation between professionals.
One of the seals of the Florida Education Corporation has to do with increasing the percentage of commitment of families: parents, guardians and students, with the requirements of educational establishments. The idea is to achieve more active participation in the development of students' skills and competencies.
