This guest story is by Miss. Perede Patricia. She is an educator who teaches to students living with Autism in Nigeria! She is very passionate in bringing out the best in every Autistic child.
Autism is a developmental disorder, which affects the ability to communicate and interact effectively. Autism is also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder. However, it is worthy to note that Autism is not a disease; It is not contagious like most people believe. From the Africans’ perception, Autism is not associated with IMBECILITY or WITCH CRAFT. Please understand these facts and disregard these myths about Autism.
An Autistic child is a child who understands his or her world from a different perception, which everybody needs to understand. For example, you may see Letter A as Letter A, but that Autistic child may see Letter A as an “Umbrella” or even “Rat”. Working with Autistic children brings me fulfillment and joy; These children are loaded with potential. I met a 7 year old , Autistic child with a lot of challenges. She was aggressive in her behavior, speech impairment, inability to write and read like her classmates. My first discovery about this child was she needs LOVE and special attention . I became her best friend , then the aggressive behavior ceased. After that l taught her how to hold her pencil and crayon, she started coloring and scribbling. At first it was really challenging for her, but with time, she got used to it. Overtime, l could understand her keen interest to write, so l quickly introduce her to different writing patterns and tracing of her Alphabets and numbers. It took her 2 months to properly write her letters and numbers. It was wow-wow experience!
Now this child is 9 years old. She can perfectly write her Numbers and Alphabets without Assistance, she can read and spell Simple words and write simple Sentences by herself and above all she can express herself. This child was stigmatized and isolated because she is Autistic, but what really surprised me is that this particular child can spell 50 words without assistance; This is what other normal kids find it difficult to do. In conclusion, don’t stigmatized or discriminate any autistic child; These kids are loaded with a lot of potential, and they only need someone who believes in them.