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Personal details
Date of Birth: 08/07/1961
Birthplace: Zaragoza
Address: Avda. Pablo Gargallo,
72, 4º B, 50003 Zaragoza
Tel.: (976) 56-73-03 / 28-18-34
Spanish I.D. Nº: 17.160.850
Education
Teachers' Training: Specializing
in Special Education
E.G.B. Teachers' Training
School, Zaragoza University. 1980-83
Training in Expression and
Communication Techniques:
Municipal School of Barcelona.
Catalan Autonomous
Government Dept. 1983-85
Training in Psychomotor development:
Psychomotor Development
Training Centre, C.I.T.A.P. Madrid
1988-90
Languages: A working knowledge of French
Courses followed
Course in Psychomotor Development:
Municipal School of Expression.
Barcelona. 1983-84-86
Course in expression, communication
and psychomotor development techniques:
Municipal School of Expression.
Barcelona. 1983
Course in Ceramics: The People's University, Zaragoza. 1983-84
Others: The sensitizing of
the teacher towards creation; Theatre workshop; Folk dance.
Municipal School of Expression.
Barcelona. 1984
Course on Assessment and
development of visual perception:
O.N.C.E., Seville. 1987
Course on Visual stimulation of the blind baby:
O.N.C.E., Barcelona. 1988
Course on Speech Therapy:
CEMEDETE, Seville. 1989
Others: Light and shadow;
Tradition in schools; Sensory perception.
Municipal School of Expression.
Barcelona. 1989
Course on Techniques for
Painting on Silk:
Zaragoza. 1990-91
Course: "Consultation et
prévention en psychomotricité"
Institut Supérieur
de Réeducation Psychomotrice. Paris. 1990
Course on basic training:
"The education of the deaf
and blind"
O.N.C.E. Madrid. 1992
Course: "Introduction to
mental health in infancy".
Quiron Clinic. Zaragoza.
1994
"Psychotic disturbances associated
with blindness"
O.N.C.E. Pontevedra. 1995
"Educating the deaf and blind
child"
O.N.C.E. Madrid. 1995
"Updating techniques for
the handling of behavioural and communication difficulties in educational
contexts"
O.N.C.E. Zaragoza. 1995
Conferences
IV Training Conference for
Special Education Teachers
E.G.B. Teachers'Training
School, Zaragoza University. 1984
I Conference on hearing defects
associated with blindness
O.N.C.E. Madrid. 1987
Conference: Studies carried
out on impaired vision and blindness
O.N.C.E. Pontevedra. 1988
Conference: The updating
of education for the deaf and blind.
O.N.C.E. Madrid. 1993
Conference on dialects in
Aragon
Committee for Culture, Faculty
of Philosophy and Arts. Zaragoza. 1994 Seminars
II National seminar on psychomotor
development: psychomotor development, integration and special education
needs
Educational action. Madrid.
1995
III National seminar on psychomotor
development
"Gloria Fuertes" School.
Educational action-CITAP. Andorra (Teruel) 1996
Papers presented at the following Conferences
I Spanish-Portuguese Conference
on Guidance
O.N.C.E. Huelva. 1987
Visual impairment and blindness:
guidance for parents and teachers
O.N.C.E. Huelva. 1987-88
Awareness of visual impairment
and blindness in compulsory secondary education
C.E.P. Teruel. 1993
The teaching of reading and
writing skills to blind and visually impaired children
C.E.P. Alcañiz. 1994
An experience of encouragement
to develop reading habits in childhood
I National congress on the
provision of services for the blind and visually impaired. O.N.C.E. Madrid.
1994
Visual impairment and blindness
in primary education
Red Cross. Huesca. 1996
Presenter at the following
round-table discussions:
Concurrent handicaps
The meaning of games for
the visually impaired and blind
I national congress on the
provision of services for the blind and visually impaired. O.N.C.E. Madrid.
1994
Professional experience
. In primary education:
"Madre de Dios de Begoña"
kindergarten. Zaragoza. 1983-84
. In self-expression and
drama:
- "Agustina de Aragon" state
orphanage. Aragon Regional Government. Zaragoza. 1983-84
- "Jeronimo Blancas" state
primary school. Zaragoza. 1983-84-85
. In camps with the mentally
defective:
Red Cross. Soria. 1984
. In integration support and at the specialist Centre with the blind and visually impaired. 1986-1995...
. In the self-expression and drama workshop with drug addicts in rehabilitation. Zaragoza. 1989-1990
. In creative drama workshops with pre-school, primary and secondary education age children. OISTROS team. Local government campaigns and Aragon Regional Government. Zaragoza. 1989-92
. In a puppet workshop (pilot
scheme) with visually impaired children. O.N.C.E. Zaragoza. 1995-96
CONTENTS:
. Acknowledgements
. Introduction
. Disability, difference
and diversity
. Multiple disabilities
. An alternative way of
educating. Schooling for children with multiple disabilities:
- Articles 27 and 49 of
the Spanish Constitution
- The current situation
of special education:
Ministry of Science and
Education
O.N.C.E.
. Talking about education:
Sensorial education: Perception
and the outside world
. The dynamics of play as
an instrument for learning about the world around us:
Play, a vehicle for exploration,
expression, communication and socialization
. An educational experience
at the "Luis Braille" Educational Resources Centre,
O.N.C.E.: School-Home
. Reflections
. Appendix
. Bibliography
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
. My thanks to the children with multiple handicaps attending classes at the "Luis Braille" Educational Resources Centre, who have given me their cooperation.
. The unconditional support given by Ana Maria Alonso Sendano, teacher at the "Luis Braille" E.R.C. in Seville, who has opened her classroom door to me, given me the privilege of sharing her daily experiences, and organized a number of people to enable me to make the video film recording.
. To Flor de Lis Mouchet, psychologist (T.R.B.) - Jorge Gonzalez, psychologist, and BelenPerez and Pilar Mediavilla, teachers, at the "Luis Braille" E.R.C. who passed the"School-Home" programme to me and allowed me to see how it was used, and also filmed it.
. To colleagues at the Huesca Administration Agency: Luisa Mª Izuel, Social Worker -Izaskun Tapia and Pilar Vazquez, Administrative Officers - Octavio Aranda, Administration Manager, and Pedro Martin and Antonio Matias, for their guidance and enthusiasm.
. To Andres Alonso, who has given form to the embryo of this work.
. To colleagues at the E.A.B., O.N.C.E./Spanish ministry of education at the Aragon Regional Government Department, and especially to Ana Isabel Rabinal (T.R.B.), and Mª Mar Perez, teacher, for listening to me.
. And, of course, a special mention for Mª Pilar Aliaga Bescos, teacher at the E.A.B. of the Aragon Regional Government Department, for her patience, availability and generosity in typing this out for me, knowing as she does how bad a relationship I have with modern machinery.
INTRODUCTION
EDUCATE FOR LIFE: THE RIGHT TO BE DIFFERENT, is based on the idea of education for living, and to live means being very much wide awake. Living means using all our senses, and where any of these are lacking, using those that are available, with a great deal of observation, exploration and investigation. We have to develop CURIOSITY which is essential in multisensorial education.
Why do this? In order to discover our corporal self, which is where we spend our lives. In order to discover the world of objects and the world of others, which is where ideas and basic relationships, as well as social and emotional experiences, reside. So why bother with all that? For the simple reason that they provide the means for understanding a little, something more or a great deal about our environment.
When I first started thinking about this paper I was reading a novel by Antonio Gala: "La regla de tres" (Rule of 3). In my opinion, this author uses very everyday, sensual language. I found one paragraph particularly appealing: "... and it is easier to see with our fingertips all the things we touch. We can see them much better than if we used our eyes. There are so many different ways we can acquire knowledge ..."
I shall now move on to my presentation.
DISABILITY, DIFFERENCE AND DIVERSITY
Same-Different and Normal-Pathological are two inseparable terms. One cannot be defined without the other. There has been much speculation about these definitions, leading to a reduction of the concept of Normality to the status of acceptance, submission or conformity in the face of social demands.
The capacity for adaptation would prove a better criterion than adaptation itself. However, the criteria governing this capacity would have to be defined, and this would mean running the risk of returning once again to what is normal, whether as a term of average or as a Utopian ideal.
Therefore, there is no simple and satisfactory definition of what is normal. Normal and pathological are, in fact, interdependent. We are faced with a dilemma, a barrier where the limits separating same and different become blurred... And then I ask myself: Where does normality begin? Where does it end? At what point of this blurred barrier does it merge with difference or with pathology? ... This is a question that has been running round my head for many years, and to which I have yet to discover the answer... If anyone knows, please tell me.
Returning to the matter in hand, "THE RIGHT TO BE DIFFERENT", and with an education for all in mind, it must be said that: children with disabilities are, just like other children, multisensorial individuals (independently of the sight, hearing, or other sensorial defect they may possess), and as such, use all their senses when performing daily activities in the home, at school or at play, and extract the maximum possible amount of information from that experience.
When we consider the situation of chidren with disability and multiple disabilities, and the enormous difficulty they have in learning about and assimilating their environment, it seems clear that we should teach them to use the sensorial abilities that they do have. They will learn this through their daily experience of life. The dynamics behind this learning process will be "making play a daily habit".
We cannot describe objects to these children, we have to demonstrate what they are like. Everything has to be presented, as far as is possible, in terms of the corresponding sense. They have to learn about and recognize things through sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. They have to experience everything, at least all those things which are within their possibilities. They must observe, explore, investigate, experiment ... in a nutshell - they must live life! ... as Comenius (1592) said: "... there is nothing in one's intelligence that has not first entered through the senses ...".
For this reason, I believe that through their own actions, as they play, these children can usually gain positive results from their movements.
Through playing games, children reinforce what they are learning and already know about the "appropriate" way of doing things. They learn from the experiences they have and add this knowledge to their store, and thus progressively create the basis for their future development. MULTIPLE DISABILITIES
Much has already been written about Multiple disabilities, and so further discussion of this topic should not interest us here.
By contrast, a consideration of impairment or lack of any of the senses takes us into the complex world of those who suffer from multiple disabilities.
When I think of these small children I cannot help but think of David Suzuki and Barbara Hehner who invite us to accompany them on a journey through a new world: the world of the senses. This is what they say:
"Goodbye. I'll see you tomorrow"
"You see what I mean?"
"Let's go and see Granny"
"See? I told you so"
In our daily conversations, we constantly use the word SEE. Sight is highly important for us. The majority of us learn more about the world around us by using our eyes than by using any other sensory organ.
What happens when this organ is impaired or completely useless?
What happens when other organs are affected in the same way? I am not going to provide the answer because we all know - either because we have lived through the experience personally or with a family member, or because we have worked on it. My only remark here is to say that the chaos is tremendous.
Returning to the journey that David and Barbara Suzuki invite us to go on, I shall read you the following:
"... Ants have no voice, and cannot see very well; however, they tell one another things through smell. All the ants living in the same nest have an identical odour, which is different from that of ants from another nest. When an ant is frightened, it produces an "alarm" odour. This warns the others that there is danger about. Ants do, in fact, use an entire "language" of smells. Their sense of smell is the most important sense they possess..."
This is an example of sensorial substitution and adaptation, and how it is possible to function when one or several senses are missing. This invites us to reinforce to the maximum the discovery, training and development of the sense or senses which can be used. This is an invitation to be DARING! Children with multiple disabilities must be encouraged to dare to maximize their possibilities. And, of course, this means AWAKENING THOSE WHO ARE WITH THE CHILD TO THIS "BOLDNESS".
AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF EDUCATING. SCHOOLING FOR CHILDREN WITH MULTIPLE DISABILITIES
It is not the aim of this work to discuss the structure of Special Education in Spain, but I consider it necessary to mention this in order to demonstrate where children with multiple disabilities are situated in the sphere of education.
In Spain today, pupils with multiple disabilities are receiving education in public and private Special Centres. Depending on the kinds of plurideficiencies and their degree, pupil group numbers, professionals, educational care, treatment, rehabilitation, etc. are decided upon. In short, the appropriate responses are given to the needs of each individual.
Articles 27 and 49 of the Spanish Constitution read as follows:
Article 27.
- Point 1: "All citizens
have a right to an education..."
- Point 2: "The purpose
of education shall be the development of the human personality in a respect
for the democratic principles of coexistence and a respect for fundamental
rights and principles."
Article 49
"Public authorities shall
follow a policy of providing for the treatment, rehabilitation and integration
of those with physical, sensorial and mental handicaps, and shall provide
the specialist care that such persons may require and shall assist them
especially in the use of those rights which this article affords to all
citizens."
(See Appendix: All the Acts,
Orders and Decrees referred to in this paragraph are cited in full.)
These are serious words! Official words! Beautiful words!... I shall now proceed to a discussion of:
- The current situation regarding Special Education.
. Ministry of Education and Science
An examination of the history of "Arrangements for Special Education", and taking the 1978 Spanish Constitution as the point of reference, article 49 of the Constitution makes public authorities responsible for the handicapped in all areas.
The Act governing the social integration of the handicapped (L.I.S.M.I.-13/1982, dated 7 April) developed a constitutional precept by establishing principles for the standardization and sectorial division of the integration and individualized attention services to be presided over by the Public Administration at all levels and in all areas relating to individuals with any kind of handicap.
This Act was followed by
other Acts, governmental orders and Decrees. I shall only cite those I
consider to have been significantly relevant in the area of Special Education:
. Royal Decree covering
arrangements for special education (334/1985, dated 6 March)
. Order dated 18 September
1990.
. The new Spanish education
act (LOGSE/1/1990, dated 3 October)
. Royal Decree covering
arrangements for the education of pupils with special education needs (696/1995,
dated 28 April)
All these Acts, Orders and Decrees are the product of the will to overcome earlier malfunctions, besides aiming to provide suitable responses to the demands of present and future Special Education.
. O.N.C.E.
The O.N.C.E. also follows the two lines of action established for Special Education:
. Integration:
Regulated through Specialist Teams in Educational Attention for the blind or visually impaired.
. E.R.C. (Educational Resource Centres):
Amongst their many other functions, these provide integral attention for pupils with multiple handicaps.
. Specialist Teams in Educational Attention for the Blind or Visually Impaired.
The integration of visually impaired pupils into mainstream education centres has, up until now, received different kinds of support in different parts of Spain.
Although the Autonomous Regions had some kind of agreement or verbal arrangement through which the Administration and the ONCE cooperated in this task, in most areas it has been the ONCE that has borne most of the weight of responsibility. So much so, that state legislation concerning the Ministry of Education and Science and legislation passed by the Autonomous Regions does not define the performance of support teams throughout the country, and has left responsibility for this in the hands of the ONCE.
Today, this situation is undergoing change as a result of the passing of the new Spanish education act (LOGSE) and Royal Decrees which confer responsibility for education on the Autonomous Regions. As a result of this, we are observing a growing need and desire on the part of the Public Administration and the ONCE to collaborate in giving support to the integration of blind or visually impaired pupils by means of Cooperation Agreements and a joint regulation of the specialist teams which look after these disabilities.
The Specialist Teams in Educational
Attention for the Blind or Visually Impaired are defined as multiprofessional
structures which provide educational assistance to individuals with these
deficiencies, according to the specific needs that such disabilities impose,
with a view to cooperating in the standardization and integration processes
in all areas of their lives.
The performance of the above-mentioned
teams is organized by provinces. This depends on the size, population,
geographical distribution, etc. within each Autonomous Region.
Within the scope of prevailing legislation, the teams provide support for all individuals whose level of eyesight is below 1/10 or whose range of vision is reduced by 90%. In exceptional cases, and always according to the educational needs of the pupil, individuals whose level of eyesight is higher than that previously stated are attended to, on the condition that this is no greater than 3/10 and the pupil fulfils all other established conditions for treatment.
When the area of performance has been defined both in geographical and deficiency terms, the specific action taken by the Teams will be directed at the following population groups, on the condition that the relevant socio-psychopedics and functional vision reports point to this:
. Blind and visually impaired babies.
. Pupils with blindness or severe visual impairment who are receiving schooling at any of the levels of compulsory or non compulsory education regulated by law, regardless of whether this is in education centres funded publicly or privately.
. ONCE members who have handicaps associated with visual impairment.
. ONCE members who are following non-regulated types of education.
. The families of pupils who come under team care.
. Professionals in the area of education who are in direct contact with pupils being assisted by the team.
. And in general, any other agents intervening in the educational community.
In short, the primary aim of the performance of Special Teams is assessment and interaction with all agents participating in the educational community, in order to make diversity possible, and to provide progressively the specific aids required by pupils in order to make integration and standardization a reality in all areas of their lives.
. Educational Resource Centres
These are a key part of the O.N.C.E. education services, and are the result of a process of reconversion which previously established education centres have been undergoing since 1986.
Their creation is due to the momentum given to the promotion of integrated education, which was the deciding factor in providing schools with a series of complementary services.
What is a Resource Centre?
It is a centre which facilitates access to the curriculum and to curricular
adaptations.
The services offered today
are:
- Planning, follow-up and assessment of education practice in the catchment area.
- Consultancy and training services for professionals in the catchment area.
- Provision of resources and adaptation of the place of study.
- Specialist transitory support for pupils requiring it within the catchment area.
- Professional training for pupils.
- Experimental design and implementation of curricular development.
TALKING ABOUT EDUCATION
An education based on development of the senses: Perception and the Outside World.
The senses are immensely complex and cannot be explained easily, which leads me to give a random definition of them:
"The senses represent each and every one of the psychophysiological functions through which a human being or animal receives information about specific elements within the natural physical world (sight, hearing, touch, sensitivity to their varying degrees) or the chemical world (taste and smell)."
The senses give us access to our environment and to ourselves.
Children start out in life through their senses, and begin to construct their basic ideas on the foundation of the sensations they receive.
The brain usually has no capacity for feeling, reaction and thought if sensory activity is absent. It is true to say that human beings think, and think with more than one organ.
Human beings do, in fact, think with their whole body; they think with their hands, with their feet and with their ears just as much as they do with their brains.
Also, one part of the thought process gives it expression, and this expression is often for communication purposes. Communication is frequently translated into spontaneous, lively everyday language which, just like thought, cannot be materialized through specific organs, but involves the whole of the body.
What is communication? It is just one more game! Because of this, we bring all our senses into play and this gives rise to alternative systems of communication, whether spoken, written, artistic or musical, or expressed through gesture, movement or rhythm. Communication is the result of interaction between our body and our senses. It means actions and gestures, a game of coordination between thought and the body. Why continue trying to explain it?
Training and development of all the senses (or whatever senses we are able to use) brings a multiplicity of organs and functions into play.
Our sensorial organs are marvellous structures. Many speak of the parts of the body as if these were machines. I consider this to be a mistake. We do not usually pay much attention to our senses unless we are lacking one of them or find ourselves working with people who either suffer sensorial impairment or deprivation.
I repeat that the senses are incredibly wonderful, and should be stimulated and developed to the maximum of the individual's possibilities.
Work done on and with the senses is what leads to personality development. It is what controls reception and assimilation of knowledge and learning. It is what makes living in harmony with difference possible.
THE DYNAMICS OF PLAY AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE WORLD AROUND US
Play, a vehicle for exploration, expression, communication and socialization.
What is PLAY? Does it mean everyday activities? Is it a form of expression? Is it a way of constructing and creating? Is it a means of communication?
Play is all of these things and much more. Above all, it is EXPRESSION, and expression is what life is all about. To live is to express oneself. Through expression we get to know about other people and others get to know about us.
All play is expression, and all expression can be translated in terms of rhythm, our own vital rhythm (breathing and heartbeats) which lends spacial and temporal meaning to life. We live in set places and our movements, gestures and journeys adjust, just as our bodies do, to that spacial concept. Each of these movements, each word, and all our actions occupy small, successive areas of time and put together the story of our lives.
The experience of children with multiple handicaps is different. The rhythm of their actions is either absent or much slower. But being children, when the rhythm is present it is more vital and more spontaneous. The whole of their expression is seen through play. Life is a game! Expression is everything! Everything is an experiment!
The adventure the child embarks on in his early play-expression/expression-play activities arises out of his tendency to experiment and feel his way around. Children experience within themselves the adventure of discovery of their own body, the bodies of others, space (which they gradually learn to regard as a separate concept not forming part of themselves) and learn about the people and things that surround them.
This magic adventure of daily discovery leads me to think about our children and say that many of them do not realize they exist as a "corporal self". They do not realize that their lives have a spacial dimension; they do not realize that their lives are marked by rhythm; they are not aware of the place they occupy in society; they have no initiatives of their own, and many of them do not realize that they have feelings they can use to communicate with others, express themselves, play, and so on. This is why they must be taught where they stand in life, and this can only be done by respecting their learning pace: GIVE THEM TIME.
ALLOW TIME for all the perceptive abilities of the child to come into play and discover the environment; let them play at "trial and error"; let them play with "mistakes" and "successes", because all observations, discoveries, investigations, experiences, and expressions which are turned into a game reinforce what the child learns.
Children with multiple disabilities
learn to discover their own languages, and to begin with use their own
bodies for this. Then we encourage them to develop further and select their
needs and everything that can be used for communication purposes. We also
help them to differentiate and discover others, which is how we establish
the beginnings of dialogue.
We give them the necessary
support for developing their powers of perception - never forgetting that
full use of these is not guaranteed - and broadening the horizons of their
environment. This is how we heighten perception through the unaffected
senses and stimulate the desire to experience all that their small, chaotic
world has to offer.
Children with multiple disabilities have to learn that the world is full of things: the problem does not lie in getting to know the object, it lies in learning that the world is full of objects. The way to learn about personal, bodily, spatial and cognitive reality is through getting to know the elements which form reality in the world. The children learn of this personal reality through play: play and everyday life go hand in hand.
If the world remains unknown, there can be no identification, and a state of independence is impossible. What we are out to achieve is personal independence, and for this we believe in evolution. A CHILD CANNOT REMAIN A CHILD FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. Children must be given the opportunity of learning through their own movement, their own activity and their own play. This means listening to them in a sensory way. We should listen to them with the whole of our body, because the child with multiple disabilities has much to tell us and can express these things through different systems of communication. Because the child with multiple disabilities has many things to teach us, let's turn ourselves into players of games ... let's play with him.
AN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE AT THE O.N.C.E "LUIS BRAILLE" E.R.C.
School-Home
The reason for this experience
So far, I have talked about plurisensorial education; about education for living and for a lifetime. We should never forget that each person is unique, regardless of whether handicapped or not. We should not forget that each person learns through observation, exploration, investigation and imitation. Neither should we forget that it is thanks to these actions that people are able to read themselves and the world around them, and arrange their lives accordingly. With all this in mind, because of it and in order to achieve results, we should not forget that:
The education of the blind and visually impaired with other associated handicaps has undergone modification in recent years. The previous idea of a curriculum based almost exclusively on the acquisition of knowledge and certain processes in order to gain access to basic contents has progressed to one of looking once more at an "introduction to other, more functional areas". In other words, seeing education in terms of being necessary for living everyday life, an education for every single day.
This line of thought was followed at the "Luis Braille" E.R.C. in Seville during the academic year 1993/1994. Experimental work began in a class of blind children with moderate mental handicaps and who were aged between 12 and 15 years. The work material contents were based on daily life, and the activities were carried out in the School-Home. Because of the problems that arose, teachers and carers had to tackle the course contents with the help of the T.R.B. and psychologist who work at the Centre.
After assessing the experience and analysing the positive results, it was decided to extend the experiment to other children.
This is the experience which is reflected in this video recording. It was developed over the academic year 1995/1996. There are several classroom groups, and the children's ages range from 7 to 15 years. All the children are either blind or visually impaired and have associated handicaps.
The video recording is set to music, and so when we play it, we shall comment on the case history of each child as well as the purpose of the activity being performed.
PROGRAMME OF SKILLS FOR EVERYDAY LIFE WHICH ARE TAUGHT AT THE SCHOOL-HOME
Exploration and recognition of space.
Transferring reality to a scale model.
Independence in the bedroom:
- Dressing and undressing
- Doing up buttons and undoing
them
- Turning clothes the right
way round
- Tying shoelaces
- Folding clothes
- Making the bed
Independence in the dining
room:
- Locating the cutlery on
the table and learning how to use it
- Eating cleanly
- Helping one another to
take a piece of bread
Independence in the bathroom:
- Washing their hands and
face
- Tearing off paper and
blowing their noses
- Cleaning their teeth
- Combing their hair
- Regulating the flow of
water from taps
Independence in the kitchen:
- Setting the table and
clearing away after a meal
- Washing the dishes and
drying them
- Sweeping the floor and
cleaning up
REFLECTIONS
When we consider the society we live in, perhaps we have opened up many doors and let in many educational currents, but who can judge whether we have achieved the right mixture. Perhaps we have forgotten something or left to one side other possibilities, or perhaps we have started treading paths which lead nowhere.
Let us consider, for example, the large number of failures which overwhelm professionals in the education community and parents here and in other parts of the world.
The intention behind this intervention has never been to invent a new pedagogical system or to create new didactics. My only wish has been to express some ideas and recall some very basic and essential notions that should be developed in children with multiple disabilities. These ideas can help us to tailor the requirements for their desired evolution to their individual condition and to the possibilities that this opens up for us at all times.
Plurisensorial education leads to communication and intercommunication, and helps us give coherence to scattered ideas and knowledge that have been acquired. It also helps us to balance feelings and find a correct equilibrium between oneself and others. Let us help those with multiple disabilities, within the scope of their possibilities and limitations, to become makers of their own communications, to be masters of their own bodies, and for that body to form a whole with their minds and their alternative systems of communication.
Let us enter the world of their differences and educate them to live; let us have an understanding of the social and emotional difficulties that disability implies, and let us develop in them a positive self-concept regarding the relativity of human differences. Then I ask myself: Where does normality begin? Where does it end? At what point of this blurred barrier does it merge with difference or with pathology? This is a question that has been running round my head for many years, and to which I have yet to discover the answer. Can anyone tell me?
APPENDIX
I shall, if necessary, supply the supporting documentation for the legislation referred to in this paper (taken from the relevant Official State Bulletins).
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LUCERGA R. et al: "Juego simbólico y deficiencia visual". O.N.C.E. Madrid, 1992
MARRAZZO, M.C. and T.M.: "Mi cuerpo es mi lenguaje". Ed. Ciordia. Buenos Aires, 1975
MICHELET, A.: "Los útiles de la infancia". Ed. Herder. Barcelona, 1977
MONFORT, M. and JUAREZ SANCHEZ, A.: "El niño que habla". Ed. Nuestra cultura. Madrid, 1981
QUIROS, J. and SCHRAGER,
O.: "Lenguaje, aprendizaje y psicomotricidad".
Ed. Panamericana. Buenos
Aires, 1979
RIGAL, R.: "Motricidad humana". Ed. Pila Teleña. Madrid, 1988
STOKOE, P. and HARF, R.: "La expresión corporal en el jardín de infantes". Ed. Paidós. Barcelona, 1987 SUZUKI, D. and HEHNER, B.: "Exploremos los sentidos". Ed. Labor. Barcelona, 1988
WEISBERG, R.W.: "Creatividad. El genio y otros mitos". Ed. Labor. Barcelona, 1989
ZIV, A. and DIEM, J.M.: "El sentido del humor". Ed. Deusto. Bilbao, 1989
Other sources of information:
The Official State Gazette
"Education for those with sensorial handicaps". A compilation of the Papers read at the V International Conference. Barcelona.
"The third sense". A journal on deafness and blindness.
"The education of the blind child in the early years of life". An article written by Mercedes Leonhardt.
"The blind child from 0 to 6 years". A bulletin of studies which also lists Social Services.
"People with multiple handicaps". A course given by Lilli Nielsen.
Documentation covering the "III national conference on Psychomotor development", 1996.
"Psychomotor development". A journal of studies and experiences. CITAP.