How parents and teachers empower Nigeria’s special needs children

Early intervention and educational services, combined with support networks, have led to huge improvements.

Abuja, Nigeria – Joseph was about to turn two when his mother noticed that he liked to keep to himself. He would not associate with other children, was not maintaining eye contact, had started walking on his toes, and mumbling, which she found particularly strange because a child’s speech should improve with time. All the signs called to mind something she had read in passing in a magazine several years earlier. So she went on Google to research his symptoms and possible diagnosis. Everything she read confirmed her suspicions: autism. “I just knew,” says Aisha John-Mark, gazing at the wall in front of her as she recalls that day. “And I knew I had to seek help.” She returned to Google for speech therapists in Abuja and it led her to a website about behavioural disabilities, how to care for children with special needs, and the importance of early diagnosis. Aisha contacted the writer, Lola Aneke, a special needs educator and founder of the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training (CADET) Academy. The school, located in Asokoro, a highbrow area in Abuja, provides early intervention and educational services for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Asperger’s syndrome, Down’s syndrome, and other developmental disabilities. Following Lola’s advice, Aisha took her son to the school. “The child stays there like he’s part of the system and they keep assessing him,” she explains. After about a week-long assessment, the therapist at the academy concluded that Joseph had a speech disorder. Not only does the school provide educational support for children with special needs, they also work with therapists to help with behavioural modification, speech therapy, social skills and language skills. So to continue Joseph’s education and treatment, Aisha enrolled him at CADET. That is when they noticed he was exhibiting other behaviours: he could not hold a pencil, he would get really uncomfortable when a place got noisy. Another assessment confirmed that he had autism.