February 20, (THEWILL) – United States – based Special Needs Education specialist, Dr. Bimpe Abayomi – Ige, Monday, said Nigeria was not doing enough to cater to the genuine needs of children with disabilities, both at home and in schools, to enable them achieve their full potential in life . She therefore called for a total change in the approach to taking care of these children, saying what obtains here in Nigeria, at the moment, is not really what it should be.
Dr. Abayomi – Ige, who is the CEO of Learning Helpers LLC, a U.S. – based Special Needs education providers, said it has always been her desire to make a positive and lasting impact in the lives of children with one form of disability or the other as well as their parents, who, according to her, struggle with the challenges of taking proper care of these special children on a daily basis.
Speaking at a virtual meeting with a select group of Nigerian journalists from her base in the United States via zoom, the Pennsylvania – based teacher and Special Education Compliance Monitor, who is also a Lead at Magnet School, one of the best schools in the U.S., said she was willing and ready to bring the services of Learning Helpers to Nigeria in order to help children with special needs and disabilities as well as their parents.
In an emotion-laden speech, Dr. Abayomi-Ige, who has more than 25 years of experience in Special Education with focus on autism, specific learning disabilities, dyslexia and others, said, “I have been doing this for years but this is the first time I will be addressing my people (Nigerians) . My desire is to bring awareness and support to parents, caregivers, government parastatals, schools and non-governmental organisations on the need for proper diagnosis and adequate care for children with special needs.”
According to Dr. Abayomi-Ige, a 2021 UNICEF data estimates that about 240 million children worldwide have a form of disability or the other that negatively impacts their learning in school adding that children with disabilities are left behind by their non-disabled peers globally.
”We are poised to changing lives and improving outcomes for all children,” she maintained, saying ”Learning Learners is a virtual platform only and we do direct consulting, direct coaching, parent coaching, individualised coaching, targeting the special needs of the individual,” as she frowned at situations where children are lumped together on the assumption that they have same challenges without proper diagnosis and examination of individual cases.
Dr. Abayomi-Ige expressed her desire to come down to Nigeria with her team of experts in different areas of special needs to offer free services to groups, churches, non-governmental organisations involved in taking care of children with special needs given adequate preparation and assurance on safety and security of the team members.
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