Coping with a child with learning disabilities Mrs Pamela Chirwa

Pamenus Tuso
When Mrs Pamela Chirwa enrolled her child for Grade One a couple of years ago, she expected the best academic performance out of the kid, but that was not to be.

Mrs Chirwa and her husband sacrificed everything in their lives for the foundational education of their daughter but alas results for their efforts were disappointing as she was not performing well in school.

“Each time I went to the school for consultations, the teacher would tell me that my child is not doing well. At one time the teacher suggested to me that the reason my daughter was not performing well was because I had brought her to school while she was still too young,” said Mrs Chirwa.

She however could not agree with the teacher as her daughter was turning six, the average age for Grade One entry in Zimbabwe.

“You see I am very short. So my daughter is also short so with her short frame, the teacher assumed that maybe she was not yet ready for school but then I argued that she is the right age because she went to school when she was turning six and she had gone through pre-school as required.

“After proffering my argument, the teacher said maybe there was need to give the girl more time to improve,” said Mrs Chirwa.

After the child completed Grade Five, Mrs Chirwa requested that she be made to repeat the grade with the hope that she would improve. It was then that the class teacher suggested that the girl be moved to a special class.

“So she was transferred to a special class for two years but there was not much improvement. What is more surprising is that the teacher told me that she was not that bad in mathematics but instead struggled with reading lessons.”

Worried about her daughter’s unimpressive academic results, Mrs Chirwa started carrying out her own research and eventually identified the child’s problem.

“I discovered that my daughter suffers from a learning disability called dysthymia,” she said.

A lot of parents these days find themselves in the Chirwa family’s predicament but unfortunately most of them are ignorant of neurological problems and how the conditions can be rectified.

Cases of neurological conditions associated with children’s learning difficulties are on the increase in Zimbabwe, contributing to low pass rates.

The most common children learning conditions are dyslexia, dyscalculia and dysgraphia which affect learning basic skills such as reading and writing.

Neurological remedial specialist and director of Baobab Educational Assessment Centre, Dr Themba Nyoni said various neurological conditions can also interfere with higher level skills such as organisation, time planning, abstract reasoning and long as well as short memory.

“Children learning difficulties such as dyslexia is quite prevalent in the community to the extent that the Government has availed school psychological services. The Government has realised that there is need to cater for the kids who live with these conditions.

“These days we have got high rate of failures in schools in the country. Even in the job market some employers are complaining about workers who cannot perform simple tasks like writing reports. That is an effect of prevalence of dyslexia in our communities,” said Dr Nyoni on the sidelines of a recent Learning Difficulties Conference held in Bulawayo.

The remedial specialist whose organisation is involved in the assessment of children with learning difficulties said there is need for a holistic approach to children’s learning difficulties.

“We need to tackle this problem in a holistic manner. We need an inter- ministerial approach to the issue. The Ministry of Health and Child Care and Education should work hand in hand in providing specialists. The Ministry of Education should provide experts and equip classrooms with teachers and equipment which is friendly to children with learning challenges,” said Dr Nyoni.

He implored schools to invest in the various needs of children with learning difficulties.

“Schools should stick to their core business. These days my heart bleeds when I find schools buying luxury coaches when they cannot even afford a C-pen reader. These days schools through the Schools Development Committees can also afford to pay salaries for extra staff but they cannot employ psychologists to work with children with learning challenges,” said Dr Nyoni.

C-pen Reader is a scanning pen that displays a word definition and reads text aloud to support dyslexic children and adults with reading difficulties.

Dr Nyoni said apart from C-pen Reader, children with reading difficulties can also use technologies such as Kurzweil 3000, Dragon dictation and Audio books.

Mrs Listina Moyo, Matabeleland South provincial education psychologist said children with learning disabilities experience almost everyday situations such as shame, anxiety, frustration, social isolation, melancholy and lack of self-confidence.

“Such situations have serious psychological effects on a primary child and contribute to creating a negative self-image and low self –esteem. Generally, these children are hardly motivated to learn because they do to get praise very often because of their low performance and are not internally satisfied for the same reason,” said Mrs Moyo.

She said having a family member with an intellectual disability can also have an effect on the entire family.

“It is a unique shared experience for families and can affect all aspects of family functioning. Life in the family of a child with a learning disability is complex and challenging, involving practical and emotional issues. There are medical and educational decisions, financial pressures and time constraints, all likely to represent additional responsibilities for parents,” said Mrs Moyo.

She urged families with intellectually challenged children to adjust their family lives in order to enhance the child’s self-image and strengthen the family system.

“To begin this process, parents need to educate themselves about the nature and manifestations of their child’s difficulties. Merely knowing that a child or adolescent has learning disability is of little help to anyone.

“On the other hand, specific information about what the child can do and where problems are likely to occur will foster understanding and acceptance. Many parents acknowledge that in their ignorance, they were angry and even punitive with their child before identification of the problem, attributing behaviour to laziness, resistance or even defiance,” added Mrs Moyo.

Mrs Chirwa said after being referred to Baobab Education Centre, her daughter has now completely changed.

“One day I was talking to a friend about my daughter’s problem and my fears since she is a girl child and is vulnerable to a lot of dangers. The friend referred me to Dr Nyoni of Baobab Education Assessment Centre who assessed her. She identified her problem and immediately drew up a personal plan and started working on her,” said Mrs Chirwa.

She said the family has witnessed a remarkable improvement on the daughter’s life.

“She is now self -confident and can now read some words. She is no longer shy from asking new words and her self-esteem has improved. She can now work on the computer,” she said.

The daughter so far has completed two courses in hair dressing and catering from vocational training centres.

“I do not have to go to a hair salon for my manicure. She does it for me,” she said.

Mrs Chirwa is however concerned about whether her daughter will be able to independently live for the rest of her life.

“She should go through the world independently. If she did not know how to read but went through high school can you see how bad it was? I was worried about that,” she said.

She also expressed her disappointment on the stigmatisation of children with learning challenges and their parents.

“And you find out that the stigma does not affect the child only, but it does also affect the parent. As you are among other parents, they boast of their children’s academic brilliance and for one to openly say my child is not performing well is really difficult,” she added.

A lot of parents have expressed concern over the shortage of specialised schools for children with learning difficulties as well as the high tuition fees charged by the few schools offering the services.

Most schools are privately run and are very expensive. Most of the affordable schools do not have adequate and ideal infrastructure for the children.

“We want the Government to intervene and avail equipped and cheap schools for children with learning challenges,” said one parent.

Physicians encourage parents with children with neurological challenges to enrol them in mainstream schools but in Zimbabwe it is very difficult to have them in public schools hence many find themselves in schools of the disabled such as Ruvimbo, King George and St Giles Rehabilitation Centre.

Mainstream schools help the children to engage in social activities with other children of their age.

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