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‘Children with autism have inherent talents’
“These children are not spiritual beings, the only challenge is the disparities in their sensory sensitivities of smell, touch, taste and sound. Their hyper or hypo sensitivity of sound, for example, may make them either scream or not hear,” she explained.
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Mrs Boateng told the Junior Graphic that “Children with special needs have inherent talents which if nurtured appropriately can make them industrious.”
She urged parents of children with special needs not to keep them at home for the fear of being stigmatised but be bold to enrol them in schools to secure their future.
When the paper visited the Nsaba Presbyterian Junior High School in the Central Region, which enrols children with special needs, the headmistress, Mrs Victoria Anyan advised children and teachers of various public schools to engage in a collective effort to provide a conducive environment for the children to thrive in school.
She noted that once children with special needs were educated in the right environment, they would be able to develop themselves despite their challenges.
“In my tenure, I can proudly boast of having trained four children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and currently training one child who is now in JHS two, Awura Ama Sagoe,” she said.
“The children have been encouraged to play, learn and help their fellow mates who have special needs in order not to deter but motivate them to regularly come to school. Some basic tips that can be adopted by teachers are to allow children with special needs to sit in front during class hours, mark their scripts irrespective of how poorly they are writing and address all their grievances,” she said.
Awura Ama said she was very happy to be in the school because it created an enabling environment for children like her.
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She said the reception at school was warm and thanked her friends; Ethel Aidoo, Elizabeth Kumi, Faustina Ofori, Benedicta Asiamah and Bernice Asiamah, for their support.
Awura run off happily playing ampe with some male and female mates in her class.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teacher of the school, Mr Ebenezer Agyenim -Boateng said the patience teachers had for Awura Ama had improved her academic performance immensely.