Abstract:

From a theoretical framework based on the paradigm of complexity, we approach the thematic of the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) in order to contemplate the fundamental assumption of complexity: the non-separation of the different dimensions of reality. Thus, our central research question is: How does cognition / subjectivation emerge in autistic children acting in an environment of touch (iPad) technologies with challenging devices? Our principal objectives are: to understand the coupling subject/touch-machine technologies and to observe the process of complexification of the implied subjects expressed by access to new cognitive level, better social interactions and subjective changes.

So far, from a vast literature review, what we have seen is the presence of approaches that are linear, reductionist and fragmentary to the different human dimensions. They are hegemonic at care of autistic persons, even today, despite a vigorous production of discoveries of the scientific world. The implications of these approaches are disastrous because they do not address to human biological conditions, thus bringing much suffering to autistic subjects and their families. By focusing objectively on specific aspects of children's behavior such as communication and stereotyping, they fragment the reality of these children because they leave aside the work with self-consciousness that would lead to autonomy, which is fundamental in autopoietic beings (Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela). These biologists, from the vertex of complexity, consider the self-organization principle as the axis of the process of living. It is the core of our framework.

The principle of neuroplasticity follows logically these theoretical assumptions. The methodology consists in the weekly attention care to the subjects of the research in a period of two years with breaks in the school holidays when the children take the iPads home and then they are observed by the parents who, on their return from the holidays, deliver a report about the period far of the university. The empirical emergences of the research are treated without rigid categories that fix the reality but in a cartographic way that show the transformation in the living flow. In six years of research in this project we have seen significant transformations in these subjects in terms of cognitive improvements and better communication, as well as a very interesting process of school inclusion. Our great concern and insistence is in the explication of our epistemology. In the approaches that we find there is no such exposure and therefore we consider such a concealment a risk. Thus, in attempting to deepen our studies on Epistemology and Complexity, we have coined the concept of Ontoepistemogenesis with which we hope that these studies may also help to draw attention to complex neuroscience research and how they can effectively assist in the approach to ASD. This is an ongoing project, so we only have interim conclusions, to be further clarified.

Keywords:

Autism, autopoiesis, neuroplasticity, technological coupling ontoepistemogenesis.