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The idea was that Luismi understood a story, learned it, gestured it and told it. And then, when that feat was mastered, he went to a school to tell the youngest children the story of the soup that burns.

And in this came the pandemic .

If nobody is going to be able to leave the house, what will happen to the story? Will all of Luismi's talent have to be thrown away with the inorganic? Will he burn the soup forever?

No. If Luismi cannot see the children, let the children see Luismi.

This is the story of Luismi's double victory, the tale of a two-headed triumph against the potholes of autism and against the confinement of the coronavirus.

Today, on World Autism Awareness Day , we tell the adventure of Luis Miguel Loro Vicente , a 17-year-old boy with an autistic spectrum who has recorded a 5.39-minute video for boys and girls to see a story from the quarantine of their houses.

- What do you like the most about the story, Luismi?

- That the soup burns and you have to blow.

We spoke to Luismi by video call. It is important that you see who is talking to you. And it is journalistic to know about her smile, the looks at the camera and her mother and the slow and basic rhythm that the conversation requires. For that reason, 5.39 minutes of story, gestures, voices and interpretation without looking at a single piece of paper seem like a miracle to us.

"More than a miracle it is work. We spent many weeks with it. The first thing Luismi had to do was understand the story. I made a drawing of each sentence and when the story was learned, we began to put voices and gestures to make it look natural "It was a difficult process. For him, imagining that he has a spoon or that he is a bat that flaps its wings is a huge advance. We cried with emotion when we finished." She is Almudena Mateos Recio , one of the Luismi teachers at the Joaquín Araujo Institute , in Fuenlabrada (Madrid), a preferred school for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) . Together with her partner María Cruz , this teacher in hearing and language and therapeutic pedagogy directs several educational workshops, in one of which the germ of this story was born. "In the Communication Workshop I proposed to make a storyteller for March 20, which is the International Day of Oral Narration . And there it all began."

The story is titled The Burning Soup and is written by an author struggling in the children's narrative. His name is Pablo Albo and he has already seen the video. "He was thrilled to see him. And he has told us that it is an honor for him."

We will not gut the mystery here, but the thing is about a girl who cannot eat the soup because she burns and asks the animals for help to blow and blow and blow ...

While Luismi was learning the story, Almudena and María were recording the process. Few days before the state of alarm was decreed and the day of the oral narrative arrived, the educators had recorded material that was the proof of a victory. "But the confinement came and we thought of an alternative. We spoke with the head of studies to see if the video could be sent to the school where Luismi was going to speak, the Carlos Cano Center , so that the children could see it from their homes. Everything It went so well that they have even posted it on Facebook and some nursery school also wants it. "

Luismi was born well. He was a baby like so many and began to talk and look around without problems. But after a year and a half of life something happened.

His mother, Silvia Vicente , knows this as no one else: "There was a neurological disconnection. He stopped looking at us, paying attention, talking ... He was diagnosed with ASD . Then, after three and a half years, he started trying to reconnect. Today he is a very intelligent boy, with an impressive memory and very good for numbers. But he has a hard time understanding first and must speak to him in short sentences. Whenever they explain it to him, he will do everything in life. "

For example, confining yourself against the coronavirus. Luismi watches TV a lot, has seen hospitals and masks, hears things every day. "We tell him everything about the pandemic. And he has chosen to stay at home because he knows that infecting is serious for others. For example, for his father, who has pulmonary emphysema . He does not cost him asylum because he has the nerd of his sister a good example. She is now an example for him as he always was for her. Her brother has spent his life with pedagogues, psychologists and educators and that has given her the vocation to study Speech Therapy ".

We are going to say goodbye to Luismi when he shows us two pages. On one of them is his painted face. It is a speech because today is Autism Day. And he is learning it. To record it on video.

- I want to promote a positive image of people with an autistic spectrum. I am proud to accept you all as you are and I hope you feel the same ...

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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