Last Night was specially very educative on our weekly radio show at the Kiss 99.9 FM Abuja. Our topic was “THE IMPORTANCE OF EARLY INTERVENTION IN MANAGING INDIVIDUALS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS” and it was my utmost pleasure to have with us in the studio, Air Vice Marshall Femi Gbadebo (rtd); the founder and CEO of Benola- A Cerebral Palsy Initiative, as a guest speaker, who spoke extensively on this topic.
We began our chat with explaining the meaning of “early intervention”, I explained simply that early intervention means “being proactive as opposed to being reactive”. You address something before it happens. In analyzing the situation of child birth, I added (like I always say) “having a special needs child is not the end of the world” and something can be done. There are different stages of special needs condition which ranges from mild, moderate and severe. If parents are proactive and address children with these conditions promptly, the child has a higher chance of moving from, say, a severe case to a moderate case or from a moderate case to a mild case.
Air Vice Marshal Gbadebo gave us more insight on this topic. He stated that he has a 22 year old son living with Cerebral Palsy and has been faring well. Very importantly he said that we must understand that “every individual can learn” irrespective of their pace and “every condition can be managed to a certain level of independent living” but to do that we must start early. The brain of a newborn is like a sponge and absorbs information easily and fast, which brings about development. The time period for maximum development of the brain is about 5 years for a “typical” child but a child with special needs may have just 2 years. Therefore, if we waste time when that child is young, we would have wasted valuable time that the child could have received early intervention to address the condition and bring him closer and faster to living and managing an independent life. Many Nigerian parents have spent the early years of their children with such conditions seeking for “spiritual healing” instead of addressing it as a neurological condition that it is.
More so, he added that the poor facility in our Nigerian hospitals also is very detrimental to early intervention. Unlike developed countries, where the necessary facilities, professionals and social workers are available for parents who have children with such conditions after birth, the Nigerian system only offers very poor and limited services in our hospitals, hence the support system parents need is not available. You will therefore notice that the first problem with early intervention is parents not knowing or accepting that their child has a problem.
When a newborn is developing, it is important to note that the child attains the milestones a “normal child” should attain at their different stages, and when children do not attain these milestones like talking, moving etc. when they should, it should be a sign that there is a problem. Socially speaking, many Nigerian parent do not want to be stigmatized as parents with children that have special needs and may even have negative and rash reactions if mentioned to them, and “you cannot help someone who says she doesn’t have a problem”. Instead of seeking for “miracles” first, “the first miracle is knowing that you have a problem” and help is needed, then one can now seek the help needed.
Air Vice Marshal Femi also shared some experiences handling his child with Cerebral Palsy. He explained that Cerebral Palsy could be as a result of a child being denied oxygen most likely because of delay during child birth. Although it may be challenging, as sometimes parents are tempted to keep these children indoor for fear of stigmatization, which in turn further affects their social skills, if they are given the help they need, they could fare well. In sharing his experience, he stressed the importance of helping the parents who have kids with these conditions. Many times, parents are abandoned to handle these kids themselves which could be very challenging. What parents with children with special needs require is understanding and help from family and friends in managing their kids.
Every child that is not “normal” needs an intervention. It is very vital that parents accept that their children need this help. And society should be educated to empathize rather than stigmatize parents that have kids with special needs. Also, we need to train healthcare practitioners on handling these cases as we have a large gap to fill in the health sector when it comes to services for early intervention for children with special needs.
Air Vice Marshal Femi concluded by stressing the need to improve the services available in the country for intervention. He stressed the need for every hospital to employ professionals and counselors whose job would be to guide parents that give birth to children with these special needs.
We ended the show after answering a couple of questions from listeners who called in.
Join us again next week, same time, same station
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