When Educators Walk to Support the Course of Autism

A group of educators recently commemorated Autism Awareness Month with a walk aimed at raising awareness of neurological and developmental disorders and sensitising Nigerians to champion equal opportunities and freedom for people with such disorders. Funmi Ogundare reports

It has been a while since a group of educators and non-governmental organisations comprising The Learning Place Centre and Innovation Academy, Anthos House, neurological and developmental disorder, LightHouse for Autism, Patrick Speech and Languages Centre, Brainy Oaks Education Consultants, among others, decided to focus on inclusive education for children with disabilities. One such is autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learn and behave.

They recently commemorated Autism Awareness Month, usually held in April, themed, ‘Aligning SDGs with Autism: Empowerment, Challenges and Victories’, to create awareness and sensitise Nigerians on the disorder to champion equal opportunities and freedom for persons with the disorder.

Members of the group were invited to symbolise unity for the cause and promote collaboration and teamwork, which would lead to the achievement of long-term goals.

They walked from St. Saviour’s School, Ikoyi, to The Learning Place Centre, Lekki, Lagos.

Speaking with journalists, Bolanle Adewole, the Executive Director of The Learning Place Centre and Learning Innovation Academy, explained the importance of collaboration for the walk, saying that the essence was to ensure that many more lives were impacted.

“We work with children with additional needs, and for us, we know that it is not what the centre can achieve on its own. The result will be achieved if we all come together and carry the whole mission as one,” said Adewole. “This year’s autism awareness walk was to create awareness because we realised that there is quite an amount of work to be done in the field. We also realised that a number of people are yet to hear of autism. For us, we believe that the work is a continuous one.”

She stated that her centre has been advocating in one way and another to showcase the talents and skills of children with additional needs, so that they can grow up as independent as they need to be.

Adewole expressed concern that the group has been self-funding and has had to get involved in charitable work to cover much ground while calling on the government to develop policies and regulations that will oversee the centre to work effectively. 

She added, “The percentage of autism in Nigeria as of today is 2.9 per cent. So I think the government has to find better ways to support than they are already doing by putting much more in place and ensuring training support for parents of children who cannot afford the services. This is very important. The government should endeavour to put together programmes like a train-the-trainer such that if they train one person, the other person in the grassroots trains another, and it keeps going.

“A lot of parents want the best for their children, but they just can’t afford it and that is why you see them being frustrated, so it is very important that government comes to our support in terms of finances so that we can impact many people and cover many more grounds.”

The executive director stated that the collaborators plan to continue the initiative yearly, covering far-reaching locations and spreading the need for acceptance, accommodation, empowerment, employment, and functional independence. 

In her remarks, the Executive Director of Anthos House and Chairperson of the event, Mrs. Lai Koiki, said people believe that autism is a disease and disability, especially for the rich, adding that it is a neuro-developmental disorder that can happen to anyone. 

She stressed the need for the government to intervene to support parents, carers, and therapists.

“Some of these courses that we go through can be subsidised so that many more people can go into them, and there will be many more of them. Unfortunately, quite a number of them who are trained travelled abroad for greener pastures; but we will just keep creating the awareness. We need to continue to reach out to people around us for support.”

She expressed concern about stereotypes, saying that it is a human problem and that awareness shouldn’t stop. 

“If life happens, it happens; you need to embrace it and keep moving forward, and for those who are not experiencing it directly, they should form a pillar of support for others because it is not easy,” Adewole stated.

She recalled when the journey started over 30 years ago, saying, “I run a school, and we realised that there are children out there who need to be in school, but they are kept at home because their parents are ashamed of them. It is a traditional mindset, so that was why we started bringing them into schools. We all have to keep learning and motivated,” Koiki stated.

The founder and Director of Patrick Speech and Language Centre, Mrs Dotun Akande, advised families struggling with children with autism not to keep them at home.

“Don’t think because they can’t speak, they are not thinking. They think and learn. You can see the great work they have done in art and how they can continue to showcase their talents,” Akande stated. “A lot of them struggle with language, social skills and behaviour, as well as sensory issues, so we must know where and how we can support them in their area of challenges.”

Asked how the centre has been managing children with such challenges, she said, “It’s becoming clearly much better because many more people are beginning to understand that these children can be helped. There is hope out there in showcasing what the children can do and the type of therapy that they need. So once we are able to nip the challenges in the bud, we will get a total child.”

She called on the government to support centres and parents by offering social services like free medicals, subsidising their transportation, and giving school grants to children with special needs.

That way, she said, many more parents will be able to send their children to school without having to think of the financial burden that comes with raising a child with autism. 

The General Manager of Lagos State Office for Disability Affairs (LASODA), Mrs. Adenike Oyetunde Lawal, stated that autism awareness month is about creating awareness and ensuring a society where autism is not only identified but easily associated with.  

“That is why we are here to support about five or six non-profit organisations who have decided to do this work today to mark the world autism awareness week,” said Lawal.

She stressed the need for parents and caregivers to accept autistic children, noting that struggling makes them clash with teachers and caregivers because some teachers can identify that some children are on the spectrum. 

“The families are struggling. Acceptance beyond reasonable doubt is one of the best things, and then adapting to the disability that your child has is one of the ways to live with the reality as it is lifelong,” Lawal explained. In the event that you have more than one child on the spectrum in the family, you must learn not to compare one child against the other because one child’s ability could be where the other child stops or starts.”

Asked how the government has supported the course over the years, she said, “Lagos state is the first to create special people’s law. Secondly, the Lagos state government has, over the last 10 years, created free education for persons with disabilities across its tertiary institutions. However, their families and caregivers do not want to take up the opportunity. We have well over 30 inclusive schools in Lagos.” 

Mrs. Oyinkan Afolabi, an educator and consultant at Brainy Oaks, said, “We train 21st-century teachers and special needs children, so we do a lot of training on autism. Prior to setting up Brainy Oaks, I was head of school. We are very much into inclusion.” 

She explained that all children should be given an opportunity to learn and that schools, families and societies must adapt to accept and include autistic children,” adding, “I like to focus on the challenges and strengths that the exceptional children have. Teachers have to be aware of their strengths, they have to be observant enough to notice so that they can help them to develop and they can become independent children and individuals in the future.” 

She said she believes that parents and educators need to be aware that the focus should not always be on the child living with autism, but other children in the family too have to be put into consideration.

“They have to know how to be tolerant as well. It is not just about children with autism knowing how to blend in, the other children also need to learn how to live with neuro-divergent children. So basically, you might be a neurotypical or neurodivergent sibling,” Afolabi stressed. “If you do not know from home how to relate with your sibling, then when you go to school, you will not learn how to relate with that child living with autism.

“This is part of the awareness that we want to create that being autistic does not mean that you cannot blend into the society and be impactful to the society.”

She advised teachers not to stop learning but to keep collaborating with people and keep creating the awareness. 

“Above all, keep on being passionate, it is not just okay to learn, but you need to love the children on the spectrum. They need to be tolerant because we are all very different,” Afolabi stressed.