Debot-Sevrin, <br/><br/>
Henri Wallon’s center for children with autism in Liège 

 -  2022.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> The “Henri Wallon Center,” inaugurated in 1976 by René Zazzo, was founded by Robert and Marie-Rose Debot-Sevrin with the idea of developing multidisciplinary therapeutic interventions for children with autism. These interventions are based on Henri Wallon’s conceptions of development. Our initial hypothesis is that the emotional and tonic functions have not been properly organized in the initial development of children with autism. The therapeutic approach will thus have to enact a structuring intervention program via the exercise of the emotional and tonic function. The first step of this therapeutic approach consists in providing the children with pleasant stimulations, at the level of the organic and sensory sensitivity. By way of these stimulations, the therapists trigger reactions connected with pleasure which will lead to changes in tonicity and in facial expressions connected with the hedonistic character of sensorial sensitivity. At the beginning of the intervention program, the favored medium is the sense of touch. Working in water makes it possible to stimulate contact with the skin, at the same time as associating this with the child’s gaze, the auditory canal, and the labyrinthine and articular stimulations. The pursuit of the intervention program will aim at developing the child’s other developmental stages, such as described by Henri Wallon.