Se nace Asperger. Y no se puede evitar. Es una alteración en el neurodesarrollo de origen no conocido que afecta, básicamente, a la comunicación y a la relación con los otros porque les es difícil interpretar la realidad tal y como lo hace el resto. «Usted entra en esta habitación y en seguida sabe que está en una consulta porque es capaz de poner en relación todos sus elementos. A un Asperger le cuesta hacerlo porque ve las cosas una a una de forma aislada: una mesa, un ordenador, una bata blanca, una camilla, y no los puede relacionar para extraer un significado global», explica Inmaculada Palazón, psicóloga clínica del servicio de Pediatría del Hospital General. Tampoco pueden interpretar el lenguaje gestual. «Algo físico, como un reloj, siempre es lo que es, pero una sonrisa no. Puede mostrar ironía, complicidad, cortesía, burla, y todo ese mundo sutil, interpretativo, les cuesta descifrarlo porque no tienen, como nosotros, el código que les permita hacerlo. No procesan igual la información. No saben interpretar los gestos».
Se caracterizan también por no tener empatía, y esa incapacidad para ponerse en la piel del otro, prever su reacción o anticipar su intención les hace muy inocentes y vulnerables. Junto a ello, son extraordinariamente honrados y sinceros. Dicen siempre lo que piensan porque no se plantean que la verdad pueda molestar u ofender, y esa sinceridad causa problemas a nivel social porque la gente los ve como niños maleducados.
A todo ello se añade, según Palazón, sus problemas con las complejidades y las sutilezas del lenguaje verbal, ya que sólo entienden los significados literales de las frases. Si una madre le dice a su hijo: «No puedes salir solo», él le replicará una y otra vez que sí puede, y tendría razón, porque impedimentos físicos no hay, lo que pasa es que la madre no le deja.
Al contrario de lo que les ocurre con el lenguaje verbal y no verbal, se manejan muy bien con las imágenes y tienen muy buena memoria visual. Por eso, en la etapa infantil, les son muy útiles las agendas compuestas por secuencias de pictogramas con las tareas a realizar en cada momento del día. «Les da mucha tranquilidad organizarse así porque los conceptos temporales abstractos los llevan fatal. Los dibujos les ayudan a saber qué tienen que hacer y a no sentirse perdidos».
Según Inmaculada Palazón, «el Asperger siempre se da en personas con una capacidad intelectual media- alta, y cuando algo les interesa, se dedican a ello con tal intensidad que son muy buenos en lo que hacen». Según los últimos estudios, el grado de prevalencia ha aumentado en los últimos años. Una de cada cien personas presenta este trastorno, una cifra «muy elevada», según la psicóloga.
Un diagnóstico precoz y un programa de atención psicoeducativo específico, son las claves para enseñarles a vivir en un mundo que no pueden interpretar como lo hace la mayoría. Acaban aprendiendo a usar nuestros códigos, aunque sigan siendo extraños para ellos, y su evolución, mayoritariamente, es buena.
La discapacidad invisible
Inmaculada Palazón llama al Asperger «el transtorno oscuro» porque para diagnosticarlo no existen marcadores biológicos que permitan identificarlo mediante pruebas médicas, y la evaluación ha de hacerse valorando las manifestaciones observadas: «Uno de los problemas es la ausencia de diagnóstico. Hay muchos Asperger que no saben que lo son hasta la edad adulta y muchos otros están sin diagnosticar porque los profesionales de los ámbitos médico y educativo tienen un gran desconocimiento sobre el tema. Se quedan con que son raros, consentidos o malcriados».
En este sentido, la etapa escolar es muy importante para, por un lado, detectar posibles casos y, por otro, para saber lo que son y poder ayudarles a evolucionar. «Los colegios son nuestro principal caballo de batalla, junto a la necesidad de que se les conozca y el Asperger deje de ser la discapacidad invisible» asegura Ezkarne Carazo, presidenta de la Asociación Asperger Alicante (ASPALI).
«Todos tienen problemas en el cole. Los profesores no suelen saber nada sobre el tema. Estamos cansados de oír cosas como ‘a tu hijo no le pasa nada’, que están malcriados o son maleducados. En Educación infantil podría ser comprensible, porque podrían confundirse los síntomas con timidez o inmadurez, pero en Primaria cuando un niño tiene Asperger es evidente. Si es que se sabe lo que es, claro», cuenta la presidenta.
Gema Morant, psicóloga de la asociación, añade que, a pesar de la importancia de una detección precoz, «hay pocos profesionales que se atrevan a diagnosticarlo en edades tempranas por el miedo a ponerles etiquetas cuando son muy pequeños. Debería hacerse, pero no se hace».
Acoso escolar
Una de las iniciativas de ASPALI consiste precisamente en acudir a los colegios que lo solicitan para explicar qué es el Asperger y cómo tratar a los niños que lo padecen. «Luchamos por sensibilizar a la comunidad escolar, no sólo a los profesores, sino también a los niños porque la inmensa mayoría de los Asperger padece acoso escolar. No les entienden, los ven raros, y no les respetan».
Junto a la concienciación, la asociación aboga por introducir en los centros adaptaciones metodológicas «que no tienen por qué ser curriculares, ya que pueden asumir los contenidos como los demás, sólo que son más lentos».
Algunas medidas sencillas pero que les ayudaría mucho sería darles más tiempo para hacer los exámenes, o procurar que las preguntas sean claras. «Fallan no porque no sepan la respuesta, sino porque no saben qué se les está preguntando», señala Ezkarne Carazo.
No obstante, la realidad es que no existe un protocolo de actuación en el actual sistema educativo y el grado de intervención depende de la sensibilidad de cada profesor y cada centro escolar.
ASPALI cuenta con 155 asociados en la provincia de Alicante y desarrolla, entre otras iniciativas, una Escuela de Padres, y terapias individuales o grupales con las que intentan suplir las carencias del sistema público. «Nacimos para dar respuesta a una necesidad. Hay familias que vienen muy desesperadas, pero cuando se dan cuenta de que no son los únicos y que les entendemos, todo cambia mucho», añade.
Fuente: lasprovincias.es, en Espaciologopedigo.com
I simply want to say I am new to weblog and truly enjoyed this blog site. Almost certainly I’m going to bookmark your website . You actually have fabulous well written articles. Thanks for revealing your blog site.
Major thankies for the post.Thanks Again. Awesome.
Hey, thanks for the article post.Really thank you! Want more.
At this time it appears like Movable Type is the top blogging platform available right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on your blog?|Great post however , I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this subject? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Cheers!|Hey there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!|When I initially commented I clicked the «Notify me when new comments are added» checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thanks a lot!|Good day! This is my first visit to your blog! We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community in the same niche. Your blog provided us beneficial information to work on. You have done a wonderful job!|Hey! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this website? I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform. I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.|Good day! This post could not be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!|Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your site when you could be giving us something informative to read?|Today, I went to the beachfront with my kids. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said «You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.» She placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!|Yesterday, while I was at work, my cousin stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now broken and she has 83 views. I know this is entirely off topic but I had to share it with someone!|I was wondering if you ever considered changing the structure of your site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or 2 images. Maybe you could space it out better?|Howdy, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just curious if you get a lot of spam responses? If so how do you stop it, any plugin or anything you can suggest? I get so much lately it’s driving me insane so any assistance is very much appreciated.|This design is incredible! You most certainly know how to keep a reader entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Great job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it. Too cool!|I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a developer to create your theme? Great work!|Hey! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the post I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely delighted I found it and I’ll be bookmarking and checking back often!|Hey! Would you mind if I share your blog with my zynga group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really enjoy your content. Please let me know. Thank you|Hey there, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Chrome, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other then that, fantastic blog!|Wonderful blog! I found it while surfing around on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Many thanks|Hello there! This is kind of off topic but I need some advice from an established blog. Is it tough to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast. I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to start. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? With thanks|Hiya! Quick question that’s totally off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly? My web site looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone. I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to correct this problem. If you have any suggestions, please share. With thanks!|I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back later on. All the best|I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you design this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. kudos|Wow! This blog looks exactly like my old one! It’s on a completely different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Excellent choice of colors!|Hi there just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same outcome.|Hey are using WordPress for your blog platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you require any coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!|Hey there this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding skills so I wanted to get advice from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!|Hey! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing a few months of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to protect against hackers?|Hi there! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. I’m definitely enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.|Howdy! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any suggestions?|Hey! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good results. If you know of any please share. Thank you!|I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was wondering what all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100% certain. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. Kudos|Hmm is anyone else having problems with the images on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.|I’m not sure why but this web site is loading extremely slow for me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end? I’ll check back later on and see if the problem still exists.|Hello! I’m at work surfing around your blog from my new iphone! Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog and look forward to all your posts! Keep up the excellent work!|Wow that was odd. I just wrote an really long comment but after I clicked submit my comment didn’t appear. Grrrr… well I’m not writing all that over again. Anyhow, just wanted to say superb blog!|Hello exceptional blog! Does running a blog similar to this require a lot of work? I’ve absolutely no understanding of programming however I was hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyways, if you have any ideas or tips for new blog owners please share. I understand this is off subject nevertheless I simply had to ask. Thanks a lot!|Hi! I realize this is sort of off-topic however I needed to ask. Does running a well-established website such as yours take a large amount of work? I am brand new to writing a blog but I do write in my journal daily. I’d like to start a blog so I can share my personal experience and thoughts online. Please let me know if you have any kind of suggestions or tips for new aspiring bloggers. Appreciate it!|Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.|I don’t know whether it’s just me or if everyone else experiencing problems with your website. It appears as though some of the written text on your posts are running off the screen. Can somebody else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them too? This might be a issue with my browser because I’ve had this happen before. Thanks|First of all I would like to say wonderful blog! I had a quick question that I’d like to ask if you do not mind. I was interested to find out how you center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing. I’ve had a tough time clearing my mind in getting my thoughts out. I truly do enjoy writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes tend to be wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips? Thank you!