The tabula rasa theory served John Locke to explain and ground empiricism: learning through experience: man is an entity that comes into existence with nothing in mind. It is a blank book, an unwritten table. The methodology and the project of the Solo Surf Association, a gaditana entity that combines aquatic therapy in the pool with surfing on the beach, starts from this flat tab (and another made of carbon fiber).
It is a pioneer in Spain and Europe in offering this sport as a therapy for children and adolescents affected by Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Expressive Language Disorder (TEL), cerebral palsy, Rett Syndrome, Down Syndrome or General Developmental Disorders. Since 2005 they teach the fun of surfing and learning that involves a reset, where children with these types of disorders learn to listen before seeing, reversing the way in which today's society demands, and demands, how it should be Receive knowledge
It is Saturday and on the beach of Santa María del Mar, in Cádiz, the sun shines. Four groups of children and young people go down to the shore armed with surfboards and plastic chairs. All wear neoprene, and are accompanied by their monitors. Some take students like Pepe by the hand. He is eight years old and comes every Saturday from Seville. "He has been here since he was five," says his mother, Conchita, who responds without losing sight of him.
Pepe is gorgeous and has ASD and TEL. In these three years he has learned "to walk more erect and to speak". They have taught him to work with the body to reorder his brain , improving coordination between arms and legs, thus mitigating the posture that betrays any autistic when walking: looking towards the ground and leaning forward.
The typical posture he is not used to seeing. «I knew this because I came to Cadiz one day and the hotel receptionist told me that I worked with children like Pepe. He showed me a video and I told myself that my son had to do this ». This improves self-esteem, autonomy, motivation and balance. And they also have fun because they are playing.
Improves self-esteem, autonomy, motivation and balance
Although there are premises. Children must be aquatic. You must like sand and water. "There is no need to suffer here, much less a child must suffer because he is forced," says Solo Surf's technical and training director, Jesus Borrego, a passionate surfer who founded the association with Ana Gonzalo, the managing director, which is also a monitor. Borrego looks at the sea with nostalgia while recovering from a shoulder injury that prevents him from getting into the sea. "Leave him a space for survival and reconduct him to give him a job," he tells a monitor to battle with one of his students, who do not expect, do not listen and do not understand the groups.
«All children learn by watching and listening. Here we work watching, doing and listening ». The program has three levels. The first lesson is through videos, pictograms and colors, to work emotions, and above all, redirect emotional blockages. There are also explanations. Then touch the board, and water. "We reproduce a stage in the development of children that is essential for them to finish coordinating in terms of building their body schema, processing information and learning with others."
Jesús Borrego refers to that period of time from when the child is born until he stands up and begins to walk, «which is the fundamental evolutionary leap of people and they are based on integrating the body scheme. The idea that sustains us is to reproduce that pattern of early development, to do it in a fun and normalized way ». The method is very functional, adapted to any diversity and the needs of each student .
Thus, while half of a group is lying on the table, in the sand, to get up on it when an imaginary wave arrives, the rest of the group remains seated in chairs, watching them. Then it will be their turn to do the same.
The entity, which has one hundred monitors, collaborates by developing training programs with Spanish universities such as Cádiz, Huelva, Salamanca or the Basque Country; universities in Germany or Denmark, and even receives volunteers from American universities.
More than 300 users have passed through Solo Surf , 80% of them with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), and the other 20% with pathologies such as Down syndrome or others. Alberto is from Cádiz, he is 18 years old and also Down syndrome. While riding on a wave the index is brought to the lips asking for silence. It is his moment, because he has achieved it. Then, at the end, he will leave the beach, like most of his companions, with a smile on his face.
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