(This article was first published in the New Vision on October 5, 2022)
By Ivan Tsebeni and Jacquiline Nakandi
Parents and caregivers of children with disabilities need special parenting skills to raise them.
The skills, according to Jovita Ajuna, a children’s advocate, would enable the parents and caregivers develop appropriate communication methods to eliminate barriers between them and their children.
Ajuna made the remarks at a parenting conference at Hotel Africana in Kampala recently.
Prossy Nakanwagi, an advocate for children with autism, said children with special needs continue to experience stigma, isolation and maltreatment.
“It is not easy to raise special needs children, but they need love and support.
Do everything within your power to improve your child’s wellbeing,” she said.
Nakanwagi noted that children with special needs have talents and abilities that can be identified and developed, with proper nurturing.
Other parents urged schools to adopt technology to help identify the abilities of children with special needs.
They cited technologies that rely on brainwaves — which are the recordable and measurable electrical signals produced by the brain – to test for talent.
“We should never undermine the abilities of children with special needs,” Benon Kasenene, a parent, said. Around 16% of Ugandan children have a disability, according to the World Bank.
Information from the education ministry shows there are over 170,000 and 8,000 children with special needs in primary and secondary schools, respectively.
