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Patience, training will bring the best out of special kids

ABU DHABI — Venkatesh Kutty is a 22 years old who suffers from Down’s syndrome. But still he is one of the “stars” at the Special Care Centre (SCC), a school for disabled children in Abu Dhabi.

According to Nisha Thomas, headmistress of SCC, Venkatesh not only has office skills, but he is also a good tabla player and one of the school’s three students who hold a yellow belt from Oriental Karate Institution.

“All our children here have abilities and it takes time and dedication to bring them out,” added Nisha Thomas.

There are currently 65 students at SCC, aged between 3 and 22, with various disabilities. The children with hearing impairment follow a normal academic curriculum, with special emphasis on communication skills and speech therapy.

Maryam Kosar is one of them. She can only communicate through signs and writing, but this didn’t stop her to obtain a university degree in art. “I had my basic education at this school here, then went on to university and now I’m back at SCC as an art teacher assistant,” Kosar explained for Khaleej Times.

Down’s syndrome, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism and multiple handicapped children fall under the intellectually impaired category.

For them, the curriculum is based on the principle that each student is an individual who should be approached according to his or her needs for personal, social, physical and emotional development.

“We are, in fact, a functional academy, teaching children basic reading, writing, arithmetic, time and money concepts as well as vocational skills, which are basically what a person needs to lead an independent life,” said the headmistress.

For this reason, senior students are regularly sent out to do the monthly shopping, while juniors are brought along for observation.

“Sensory integration is another very important part of our programme, which we normally do in public parks,” added Nisha Thomas.

The programme develops the five human senses — smell, touch, taste, seeing and hearing.

“I’ve also started taking the older children to restaurants, especially for birthday celebrations. This is not only great fun for them, but also teaches them how to behave in public,” said Nisha Thomas.

Academic classes

In the school itself, students take academic classes and also different therapies.

Poonam Nagesh has been a teacher at SCC for five years. “I ended up in this job accidentally, but I love it. I was a teacher before, but for ordinary kids,” she told Khaleej Times.

Nagesh teaches a sub-junior class of 5-8-year olds and at this level she shows them how to hold a pencil, how to be self-reliant by dressing up and eating by themselves.

“It is so rewarding, working with these children because you can see how difficult everything is for them and when they succeed to achieve something it’s all so emotional that sometimes I even cry,” gushed the teacher.

Rosy D’Souza is also a teacher at SCC. She was trained for this kind of work because of Jordan, her son, who was born with autism.

Now they are both at SCC — she as a teacher and Jordan as a student.

“What you need most while working with children with special needs is patience.”

“This is a must. Working so close with them you get to know their feelings, their emotions, their needs, so you are building really special relationships,” said D’Souza.

Being a private institution, SCC sustains itself through fund raising.

Although the cost per child for an academic year rises to Dh60,000, the school only charges Dh5,000 per year.

“To be able to exist, we need annually up to Dh1 million,” explained Sulakshna Sharma, special secretary of SCC.

She added that one of the biggest need for the school now is a larger building to accommodate more students.

“We can take in maximum 70 students, and for some time now there has been a big waiting list,” she noted.

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