The Inclusive Education and Individualized Education Plan Centre (IEIEPC) has trained teachers and parents on effective strategies and skills for teaching and caring for learners with special needs.
At a two-day training, which took place at SUBEB Hall, Maryland, Lagos, the Director, Inclusive Education and Individualized Education Plan Centre (IEIEPC), Oyeyinka Oluwawumi said the training is aimed at equipping teachers and parents with skills to better maximize the potential of learners with special needs.
Oluwawumi urged for support from the government and good-spirited individuals within and outside the country, adding that the centre’s effort is born out of a passion for advocacy and a desire to help reduce the skills gap between educators and parents of learners with special needs.
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He said Many a time, parents of children with disabilities are faced with difficulties of looking after their children alone, be it socially, economically or financially, hence they are mainly left with a huge burden and emotional trauma and sometimes there is a lack of adequate services/support or some services that are available are quite expensive for them to employ.
A Guest speaker at the training and Head of Special Education, Uncommon Schools, New York, USA, Marissa Gutherz, said that lessons from the training will help parents and teachers of learners with special needs in motivating and supporting them in their learning.
She said when working with children with special needs, they need a lot of consistency and structure in order to be successful.
She added that the traditional school environment is not very helpful and can be very overwhelming because there are a lot of students and teachers and many things going on. So, teaching teachers how to have special schedules or special interventions to support the students helps their minds organise and helps decrease anxiety.
She said students with special needs are so because their brain functions in a different way, so, giving teachers these strategies to helps them teach in a way that is different from the way to teach a normal child.
A lecturer with the Special Education Department, University of Ibadan, Udeme Jacob, in his lecture on Inclusion Revolution: Best Practices for Special Education, harped on the need for an inclusive learning environment for regular learners and learners with special needs.
He said the government should try as much as possible to make the environment a conducive one, modify certain things like the sitting arrangement in the classrooms so that these learners can be accommodated.
The Board Secretary, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, Lamidi Akeem appreciated the IEIEPC for organizing the training and urged the participants to maximize the lessons from the training.
Some of the participants at the training, including Afolabi Oyebade, Chairman, Nigeria Association of Special Education Teachers, Lagos State chapter and Agnes Adeyemi, Head of Unit, Ooreofe Inclusive Unit, Lagos, said the training equipped them with beneficial strategies and skills which they will deploy in teaching their students.
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