I had a very interesting day today. I was supposed to start helping the staff at Nehemiah set up their classrooms (right now all they have is chairs) but children kept coming in the gate for assessments. So, we assessed. I decided it would be a good time for the main administrator of the school to start practicing giving the assessments so that when I leave, she can continue them. She has been my translator for all the assessments so she had a good idea of what I asked, but she had not experienced the scoring section so we worked on that as well. She would ask the questions, find the answers, and we would discuss what the various scores should be. By the end of the session we were coming up with the same scores and I believe she will do a great job with these assessments in the future.
However, there was one child who came in and created quite a stir. When she arrived, her mother escorted her in and you could immediately see that the girl had a vision problem. She was told to have a seat, and had to feel for the location of the chair. When given an object, she explored it with her hands while looking up blankly at the ceiling. When asked to take an object from the table, her depth perception was very off and she had to feel around for where the object was. She was extremely talkative, but I learned later that her conversation was not applicable to the situation - she was talking about things that were not present in the room. As they always do when I first meet a student they asked, "is she autistic?" This question comes every time, and I always answer the same. I do not know yet! There are some children who you can meet for 5 minutes and see that they most likely have autism... however, there are some who you must spend more time with to understand their behaviors. There are many different developmental disabilities that exist, and autism is just one of them... I would rather not label someone before I really get to know what behaviors they exhibit and what makes them who they are.
Back to my story... I answered as I usually do, saying I wasn't sure but that we could find out more if we started the assessment because it talked about many different aspects that we weren't necessarily going to see in the school at that moment. As the administrator began to speak in Ahmeric, the woman grew very upset. Within minutes they were arguing back and forth, and before I knew what was going on the woman grabbed her child and walked out of the school. Everyone was looking at me, and yet I hadn't said a word! The women followed her outside, arguing back and forth the whole way. Finally the woman and her daughter left, and everyone else came back inside. "Okay, that is all for today," is what I was told... wait, thats it? What happened? I had so many questions about what had just occurred. I was finally able to ask someone what had just happened, and the answer is what has been bothering me the whole time.
When the administrator began talking, she started by saying something along the lines of "it is obvious that she has a vision problem, have you looked into this?" Apparently this woman was hanging from her last thread, and here is where it snapped. Of course she had looked into it, of course she knows theres a problem... everyone feels the need to tell her that her daughter has a problem, but no one will tell her what to do about it. The woman went on to say she had even had her daughter assessed for autism in a hospital, and after much money and 3 weeks of observations they said she did not have autism. The administrator told her this was a school for autism, and that they could not help her at this school. This is when the woman got up and left abruptly... and you know, I can't blame her. I can not imagine the stress of being a mother of a child who has a disability, and having everyone tell you that something is wrong with your child, something isn't right, asking if you have done anything about it.... and not one of these questioning people asking if they can help or showing you what you can do. This mother had already been questioned, had taken her daughter to the hospital, had taken her to the eye doctor (which had no result because she could not concentrate on the eye tests), and had still received no answers on what she could do for her daughter.
Everyone has told her what was wrong, and no one was willing to help. I know that the women at this school are more than willing to help when they can, and they meant NO harm when they were talking to his mother. However, we must also remain very aware of how the families feel. They are criticized for having children with disabilities because they must have done something wrong when they were raising their children (not true). They keep their children inside all day because they are not welcome in the community. People constantly criticize their children and their family... and right now in Ethiopia, there is no place for them to turn for answers.
The Nehemiah Center is named after Nehemiah in the Bible. A very short version of his story is that with prayer and hard work you can accomplish great things, and he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. The administrators told me they hope, with God's help, to build up walls of knowledge and education around autism. I hope that Nehemiah will be a light in this city for children with autism, and that they can use this school to educate the community and bring more awareness to developmental disabilities. This is just the start and it is going to be a long road, but at least they have started the journey.
However, there was one child who came in and created quite a stir. When she arrived, her mother escorted her in and you could immediately see that the girl had a vision problem. She was told to have a seat, and had to feel for the location of the chair. When given an object, she explored it with her hands while looking up blankly at the ceiling. When asked to take an object from the table, her depth perception was very off and she had to feel around for where the object was. She was extremely talkative, but I learned later that her conversation was not applicable to the situation - she was talking about things that were not present in the room. As they always do when I first meet a student they asked, "is she autistic?" This question comes every time, and I always answer the same. I do not know yet! There are some children who you can meet for 5 minutes and see that they most likely have autism... however, there are some who you must spend more time with to understand their behaviors. There are many different developmental disabilities that exist, and autism is just one of them... I would rather not label someone before I really get to know what behaviors they exhibit and what makes them who they are.
Back to my story... I answered as I usually do, saying I wasn't sure but that we could find out more if we started the assessment because it talked about many different aspects that we weren't necessarily going to see in the school at that moment. As the administrator began to speak in Ahmeric, the woman grew very upset. Within minutes they were arguing back and forth, and before I knew what was going on the woman grabbed her child and walked out of the school. Everyone was looking at me, and yet I hadn't said a word! The women followed her outside, arguing back and forth the whole way. Finally the woman and her daughter left, and everyone else came back inside. "Okay, that is all for today," is what I was told... wait, thats it? What happened? I had so many questions about what had just occurred. I was finally able to ask someone what had just happened, and the answer is what has been bothering me the whole time.
When the administrator began talking, she started by saying something along the lines of "it is obvious that she has a vision problem, have you looked into this?" Apparently this woman was hanging from her last thread, and here is where it snapped. Of course she had looked into it, of course she knows theres a problem... everyone feels the need to tell her that her daughter has a problem, but no one will tell her what to do about it. The woman went on to say she had even had her daughter assessed for autism in a hospital, and after much money and 3 weeks of observations they said she did not have autism. The administrator told her this was a school for autism, and that they could not help her at this school. This is when the woman got up and left abruptly... and you know, I can't blame her. I can not imagine the stress of being a mother of a child who has a disability, and having everyone tell you that something is wrong with your child, something isn't right, asking if you have done anything about it.... and not one of these questioning people asking if they can help or showing you what you can do. This mother had already been questioned, had taken her daughter to the hospital, had taken her to the eye doctor (which had no result because she could not concentrate on the eye tests), and had still received no answers on what she could do for her daughter.
Everyone has told her what was wrong, and no one was willing to help. I know that the women at this school are more than willing to help when they can, and they meant NO harm when they were talking to his mother. However, we must also remain very aware of how the families feel. They are criticized for having children with disabilities because they must have done something wrong when they were raising their children (not true). They keep their children inside all day because they are not welcome in the community. People constantly criticize their children and their family... and right now in Ethiopia, there is no place for them to turn for answers.
The Nehemiah Center is named after Nehemiah in the Bible. A very short version of his story is that with prayer and hard work you can accomplish great things, and he rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. The administrators told me they hope, with God's help, to build up walls of knowledge and education around autism. I hope that Nehemiah will be a light in this city for children with autism, and that they can use this school to educate the community and bring more awareness to developmental disabilities. This is just the start and it is going to be a long road, but at least they have started the journey.
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