Walking to defeat Autism

One of the participants, Gloria Anyebe who was obviously excited as she danced tirelessly to the tunes told Weekly Trust the reason behind her motivation. “I see children with autism and I feel for them, so when I heard of this awareness walk, I came out. I know a young man with autism. Also, my […]

One of the participants, Gloria Anyebe who was obviously excited as she danced tirelessly to the tunes told Weekly Trust the reason behind her motivation. “I see children with autism and I feel for them, so when I heard of this awareness walk, I came out. I know a young man with autism. Also, my friends’ child who is three years old is autistic. He was not talking, he isolates himself from others and then sometime he cries a lot. Because they discovered it early, they started with therapies and today the child is in grade-two. So, I’m out to let people know that autism is real. People should come out and face it and see how they can help children with it.”
For Anyim Udeh Jr, he has two reasons for participating in the walk. He captures it this way. “The good thing about the Walk is that we are trying to keep fit and at the same time, we are letting the world know about autism.”
While the above two have met people with autism, Mrs. Edith Attah’s daughter is autistic. And she shares her experience thus. “It has been very challenging, but now she is coping very well because of the therapy. She can do many things herself. The other day, I did not change her into her night gown, but before I came, she helped herself. These are the things  she was not doing before. The other day, when she came back from school, I wanted to give her lunch, but she made a sign to me that she is not ready. When she was ready, she went to the kitchen and dished her own meal. Then, she took second round. Now, she can run errands like taking plate to the kitchen and so on.”
Mrs. Attah offered this piece of advice to parents of children with autism. “For parents who have children with autistim, there is nothing to be ashamed of. They should count themselves privileged for God to keep such a child in their custody.   I believe God gives the grace to cope with it. They should not hide the child, they should come out in activities like this. I go everywhere with my baby. I take her to birthday parties; I’m not ashamed of her. I have hope. Before now, if they want to play with her, she keeps people at arm’s length, but now she plays with her sibling well. She is my first child and 10 years old.”
Dr. Julia Ejiogo, Consultant Family Physician at the Tabitha Medical Centre, Maitama, Abuja says “Autism is a brain disorder of children. It is usually noticed between the ages of 12 months and three years. It is the disorder that has no known cause. The cause is thought to be multi-factorial, which means there is a sort of a brain defect that we have not known yet.”
She lists some symptoms parents should look out for. “If your child cannot babble, gibberish by 12 months, if the child cannot give eye contacts – you smile at the child and he or she does not smile back. Then, when the child is 12 or 18 months, they don’t associate, they want to stay by them self, they cover their ears when they hear noise, they are not socially interactive, then begin to ask questions. If your doctor says there is nothing wrong, seek another opinion,”Ejiogo explains.
Ejiogo says the treatment for now is therapy. “We have behavioural and speech therapies where you teach the child how to hold pencil and do other things, because really they don’t know how to do what normal children know how to do.” She stated emphatically that there is no medicine for autism, but advised that when therapy can start for such children. When your pediatrician makes the diagnosis, the therapy starts. That is as early as 18 months. For doctors, I will advise that they screen children very well at first visit. This starts at 9, 12, 18 months and it continues.”
Tagged “Lets Solve the Puzzle”, the organisers of the Autism Awareness Walk and Chief Medical Director of the Tabitha Medical Centre, Dr. Chito Nwana says April is the Autism Awareness month worldwide and the Centre is glad to be part of the voices speaking and educating the public about autism.
At the end of the 6.7 kilometre Walk, Nwana had this to say. “I think the message came out. Autism is what everybody should take serious. We should start going to see the doctor so they will pick it up early and be able to give children affected by the disease proper intervention and therapy. I want to thank God for funds raised by the community and sponsors of children who can’t afford to pay through programmes for autism. I’m very happy the way it turned out.  I am hoping that with individual donations, we will be able to help about 50 children.”
Mrs. Ronke Katagum, Director, The Zamarr Institute which caters for children with autism and special needs, caps it up this way. “It is good to create this awareness, so that one less child will not be deprived of early intervention. Nigerians are discovering that early intervention is making a difference, the awareness is getting more. Activities such as this is making people ask questions and wondering why it is happening. And we are telling them and sensitizing them about autism. And you have to emphasise that it is autism not cultism.”