Families with children with special needs, due to their physical or cognitive situation, are always debating whether their child will do better, an ordinary school where the child is with other children with different abilities or a special education center with resources and specialized staff, but without diversity. The inclusive school is the goal of the educational community, endorsed by legislation. The 2017 decree states that all children, with minimal exceptions, must be together. Some not to be excluded; others, so that they don't lose the opportunity to live with children who think or live differently.
For this, there must be teachers trained in neurodiversity and a set of professionals and additional resources to allow everyone to advance. Now this is not fulfilled.
Martí Subías was born five years ago and when he was 3 he was diagnosed with autism, a 75% disability and a degree 3 dependency. He entered his 7-year-old brother Luca's school with a reinforcement resource (SIEI), a coordinated and welcoming center, a cooperative of teachers in Castelldefels with an active education project.
Martí tends to disconnect from the reality that surrounds him and finds it difficult to follow the agenda. Sometimes he isolates himself and looks for his interests. If a story is told, which he does not follow, he gets up and leaves. Maybe he goes to a corner where he knows there are cars or trains, but he doesn't use the word to request them. Sometimes, he will drum an object on a surface or try to swing for stimulation.
This is a "high demand" student, since he is not able to express what he wants and needs, such as drinking or eating, he does not control his sphincters and becomes frustrated and dysregulated when faced with the impotence of not being able to communicate.
He has muscle weakness (hypotonia and ataxia when walking). He therefore needs a third person to take care of his basic needs. At school he has a caretaker and is also assisted by a psychologist and a physiotherapist for one hour every 15 days. "Even so, the school gives him more than the SIEI resource acknowledges", thanks his father, Eduard Subías, "and even so it's not enough". At the beginning of his schooling, the differences with his peers were not so noticeable. Now the parents know that the differences, which have widened, are not because he does not follow well, because of a delay, but because he does not learn, because the way in which neurotypical children acquire knowledge does not serve him, by imitation and repetition "Martí has to learn in a different way", says the mother, Olga González.
Because early intervention is a key strategy in autism, their parents have gone out of their way to provide it. Speech therapist to work on communication using pictograms, sensory integration (psychomotor skills, attention, initiative), occupational therapy to learn basic activities of daily life (dressing, showering), and therapy in water and with horses.
The price of all this is to break their school routine and the resulting stress. Some days they don't take him to the center early in the morning, others he leaves at noon or in the afternoon. They also go to Barcelona.
In order to be available for his son, the father took advantage of a staff reduction plan in the company he worked for, he got some money that he has earmarked to pay for all these therapies. Olga's day was shortened.
The house is a gym set up to strengthen your muscles. The parents teach him pictograms to predict what will happen. Dinner, teeth, sleep. One day Martí pointed to the cupcake letter and everything was a celebration. Another pronounced the sound “uc” for juice. This gives parents hope to think that in the future he will be able to formulate sentences. "We need him to communicate or he will always live frustrated". But time is running out of their hands because they believe that it is now, with a brain more capable than ever of generating connections, when it is necessary to insist on it.
In February, the psychopedagogical care team (EAP) suggested they visit the Can Rigol special education center in El Prat de Llobregat. It excited them. They use pictograms routinely and the child could learn what he needs in school time.
They asked for a place there. Demand is very high for this type of student. Education believes that the child is progressing and there are others with priority needs, so all possible measures must be exhausted before going to a special education center, according to department sources. "And the EAP believes that he should stay at school". The parents ask that, at least, the EAP reassess Martí's situation, after the last report, two years ago, since there is new evidence of his needs (Sant Joan de Déu hospital) not picked up They trust in September. Maybe they expand the ratios, or Martí can go some days to his center and others to the special education one.
