- Nagham Qasim
- BBC News
Noah is good at playing and drawing and has learned several languages through YouTube since he was two years old
At what age did you start speaking? Did you learn a foreign language, play music or draw? We all differ in the age at which we start doing these things or some of them, but most of us started school for the first time around the same age.
As for Noah, he differs from us in almost everything. Although he mastered several languages, playing music and drawing at an earlier age than his peers, he cannot attend a school like them, as his family says.
Noah is an eight-year-old Egyptian child, and his family says that he composes musical works with the help of a computer program and shares them with his followers on his YouTube channel.
He also composes video clips for the cartoon characters he loves, puts voices and dialogue on them different from the original dialogue, and also draws flowers and cartoon characters and colors them, and in addition to all that, he “speaks several languages, all of which he learned on his own via YouTube.”
Despite this, his grandmother, Hayat Gad, says that she does not find a place for him in any school in Egypt.
Noah suffers from autism spectrum disorder and suffers from Asperger’s syndrome.
People with this syndrome find it difficult to interact socially and adapt to different emotional states. For example, they cannot stay in noisy places. They are sometimes ashamed and afraid of the presence of a large number of people around them. Sometimes they are completely unable to speak, and sometimes they have situations that make them cry or laugh for reasons. incomprehensible to others.
Noah can speak and speaks fluently, as is evident from the video clips of him, and he introduces himself in sound English.
The right to education
Noah’s grandmother’s life says that her grandson speaks several languages fluently, including English, Greek, Japanese and Spanish, but not including the Arabic language, of which he knows only a few words. And she adds, “He learned these languages through YouTube by translating them into English, which he began speaking fluently at the age of two.”
Noah’s grandmother says the problem is not just finding a school that will accept her grandson, but also a program to deal with his condition
The search for a school that would accept Noah began early, according to the grandmother, and Hayat told the BBC, “Once you apply to any school, and school officials know that he has autism, they refuse to include him in the classes and argue that he is either directly autistic or that he does not speak English, for example, despite From his proficiency in it, and other illogical matters, and because he is younger than the required age, or older than the supposed age to enroll in school, and this matter continued for years.
According to Egyptian law, the Ministry of Education is adopting a program to integrate children with special needs into schools, including those with autism in all its forms, in accordance with Law No. 10 of 2018 regarding the rights of persons with disabilities.
According to Noah’s grandmother, this article of the law is not being implemented in practice.
Hayat, Noah’s grandmother, launched a campaign on social media under the slogan “Noah’s Right to Education,” with the aim of drawing attention to the suffering of her grandson.
Hayat told the BBC: “Many families interacted with the hashtag of Noah, and told me about similar experiences. There are those whose children were rejected from government schools because of their autism, and even when some families succeed in including their children in integration programs in public schools after concealing the truth.” In the case of a child, going to school is of no value, as there are no programs designed to educate them and no one cares about them.”
In the case of revealing the child’s condition and success in enrolling him in a school, the autistic child suffers from bullying, neglect on the part of teachers, and permanent complaints on the part of some teachers and parents, which prompts families to remove their children from schools and keep them at home.
Some well-to-do families are forced to resort to private schools instead of public schools, to educate their children, which Hayat tried to do, but she was unable to pay the very high expenses, she says.
Faten was forced to devote herself entirely to the education of her son, Mahmoud
Faten experienced the same suffering with her autistic son Mahmoud, but in the Emirates.
Faten started the journey of trying to send her son to school 15 years ago, and Mahmoud is now 20 years old.
Faten told the BBC: “It was a painful and bitter journey. No private school in the UAE accepted Mahmoud to join its ranks. With difficulty, Damah’s school accepted for two years only when the school was run by a British principal. At that time, I was able to include him in the nursery or pre-school classes. school, I was directly asked to transfer him to another school.”
“Fortune to teach a child”
“Despite the astronomical expenses, Mahmoud’s experience at school was very difficult. There was no awareness on the part of the female teachers about how to deal with him. For example, he was not granted a certificate to graduate from the pre-school stage, which is given to his peers under the pretext that he did not graduate. The teachers also refused to involve him.” At the graduation ceremony for pre-school children, which greatly affected his psychological state and made him feel different from his peers,” according to Faten.
In addition to the high fees, schools that can accept some children with disabilities are very rare. Among the rare private schools that Noah and other autistic people in Egypt can join, the school closest to his residential area is tens of kilometers away from his home, which made it an unacceptable option even when trying to find the expenses he needs to attend this school.
Noah is the eldest son of his mother, and his younger brother Younes also suffers from autism, but his condition is somewhat delayed due to his ill health, according to the grandmother. The family’s monthly income does not exceed 3,000 Egyptian pounds, which is equivalent to about 123 dollars.
In addition to medication, Noah and his brother need to attend specialized training and behavioral therapy sessions, which are also very expensive.
Mahmoud’s mother, Faten, a Lebanese woman residing in the UAE, was content to include her son in a special center for the education of children with autism, and she did not repeat the school experience again. She says, “The cost of the behavioral sessions that autistic people attend throughout their lives is very high. Had it not been for my husband being well off, we would not have been able to pay these fees, yet we could not enroll him in a school due to the high costs.”
The biggest problem, according to Noah’s grandmother, is that even the expensive private schools do not have programs dedicated to dealing with Noah’s condition.
Consequently, his grandmother fears that he will be included in the classroom in a “fictitious” manner, where he is not taught, his skills are not developed, or his difference from his peers is taken into account, but only by including him in a classroom in which children learn in a traditional way according to a specific curriculum that does not take into account Noah’s difference.
Hayat says, “Noah talks at home about space and saving the planet from pollution. His mental age is older than his age and I pity him for neglect. This child needs real education and a dedicated program that takes into account his skills and develops them to benefit from him.”
Noah’s grandmother says that her campaign on social media over the past few days alerted the Ministry of Education to the failure of some public schools to implement the law, and the ministry pledged to include Noah in one of the public schools, and the grandmother fears that this decision will not solve the problem as “he could be included in a classroom He will then be required to collect certain curricula and take exams in the traditional way that does not suit his skills, and thus Noah will have obtained his right to enroll in a school, but he is still deprived of his right to education, that is, his right to be subject to a program that takes into account his condition and capabilities.
So what is autism?
According to the World Health Organization, autism is a group of diverse disorders associated with brain development.
It is a lifelong neurological condition that appears in early childhood.
The term autism refers to a group of characteristics.
Appropriate support, adaptation and acceptance of this neurological difference will allow those affected to enjoy equal opportunities and to participate fully and effectively in society.
According to the World Health Organization, one out of every 100 children worldwide suffers from autism spectrum disorders. The organization also points out that this type of disorder has been increasing globally in recent years, which makes the necessity of finding a solution for education and benefiting from the skills of these children an urgent need.
The abilities and needs of people with autism vary from one case to another, and their skills can develop over time. Psychological and social interventions can improve the communication skills of people with autism.
Aseel Al-Qadi, who specializes in educating people with autism, told the BBC: “The earlier the intervention and assistance, the better the condition. But the problem in the Arab world is related to the lack of specialists who can supervise the education of children diagnosed with autism because this specialty is difficult and complex in its study and takes time.” It takes a long time to master it, and its study may extend for years, and it is very expensive, and obtaining an accredited certificate that qualifies to work in this field is very expensive, and therefore many turn away from it.
It seems that due to the scarcity of specialists who can work in this field, the cost of educating children diagnosed with autism in the Arab world is high, which most families cannot afford and often these children do not receive any education.
It is difficult to determine the number of children with autism in the Arab world due to the different diagnostic criteria and also the lack of specialists in dealing with this type of disorder, which can be explained by the absence of statistics related to most mental and brain disorders in the Arab world in general.
However, according to statements by the former Minister of Social Solidarity in Egypt, Ghada Wali, in 2018, the number of people with autism in Egypt ranges from 800,000 to one million.
According to Al-Qadi, who specializes in the field of educating children diagnosed with autism, educating these children is a difficult task, as their cases and abilities to achieve academic achievement differ as well as their skills, and therefore each case sometimes requires a specialized teacher and a specialized program to deal with it separately.
“Teacher at home”
Faten told the BBC: “Mahmoud was a normal child until he was two years old. At that time, his vision began to weaken, and I began to notice signs in him, such as spinning around himself, playing in the same way, and always playing alone with cars. I immediately went to the doctor, and no one discovered Mahmoud’s problem at first, for many months until he discovered.” A doctor told me that my son is autistic, and at that time I felt relieved because I finally knew what happened to my son.
Faten says that centers specialized in training people diagnosed with autism are very expensive
Faten adds that she asked the doctor to prescribe medicine for her, but she discovered that autism is not a disease and that there is no cure for it. Rather, there are procedures and attempts to improve and develop the abilities of those diagnosed with it. Since then, Faten’s journey began in teaching Mahmoud herself.
Faten was forced to devote herself entirely to her eldest son, Mahmoud, and focus on teaching herself first about autism, then reading about how to teach him. She specialized in the field of special education and studied as a behavior analyst specializing in special education for children diagnosed with autism, and she is in the process of obtaining an accredited diploma in this field.
“Mahmoud excels at playing the piano and draws wonderful paintings, and this year he won a medal in the Olympics for People with Disabilities, which were held at the national level in the Emirates, where we live,” says Faten.
Faten was forced to enroll Mahmoud in a specialized center and not in a school to educate her son, but when he reached the age of 16, she decided to enroll him in a school. He will need to integrate more into society, as he is at the age of leaving for working life and is no longer a child.”
Mahmoud’s skills have developed over the years, according to Faten, and he can now fully rely on himself. His mother is now preparing him to enter the labor market and train him professionally.
And Mahmoud became able to a large extent to deal with other people like his younger brothers than him, which he was not able to do in the past.
Mahmoud produces a group of video clips on Facebook, in which he records his diaries and feelings, and shares them with others. He also celebrates occasions such as the Prophet’s birthday and Eid al-Fitr with his followers.
Faten says that, on this page, she is trying to provide some advice to mothers who have children diagnosed with autism on how to deal with them and educate them. “The way to deal with a child diagnosed with autism is long and difficult and needs a lot of support.”
Although Noah’s family is trying, for its part, to provide all means of educating him at home, as Faten did with Mahmoud, the family hopes for a solution to obtain specialized assistance for him and his peers at affordable prices, and that the issue of educating children with autism will not remain linked to the “self-efforts” of families, according to Faten and Hayat. .
