World Autism Day: Autism And Acceptance

By Blessing Igwechi

Autism can be managed! As we recognize our friends irrespective of their ages living with Autism in our society, we “light it up blue” in acceptance and zero tolerance to stigma.  Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is noticed before the child turns three which causes skills deficit and delay in developmental milestones. 

In this part of our world, we have very low sensitization and informed members of the communities who should spread the information that this disorder exists and should not be capsulated within the walls of spirituality. No doubt, we are culturally, ethnically and religiously inclined as a people but that should not be to the detriment of others, most especially, those living with one disorder or the other. Persons living with autism possess the right to access care and should also be accepted, thereby creating room for generality and reality of life for them. 

 Autism is not contagious. It is not an infection. It occurs when there are some underlying imbalances in the neurodevelopment of whoever is affected. Nationally and globally, I have seen individuals living with Autism who are still able to fulfill life’s potentials and add more values to their communities than their neuro-typical peers. You kill their confidence and hamper their attempts to exploit life’s opportunities when you stigmatize and bully them. 

One of the biggest challenges Nigerian parents with autistic children face is the fact that they have to pay monthly therapy fees with no support from organisations or even the Federal Government. Most parents with spectrum children have need of urgent mental health services which includes one-on-one therapy for them to remain stable for themselves and their families. I tell parents all the time that the biggest injustice they can do to any child with "different abilities" is to continue procrastinating on the intervention the child requires or keep fighting over why he or she is autistic. 

A child on the spectrum has a lot to pull through with, ranging from either non vocal, co-comorbidity of seizure or intellectual disorder or PDD, most especially, the part of stigmatisation from the general public. 

If you keep joining the puzzles, you might never find the missing piece; rather focus on the child's strength and work on the weaknesses. No parent wishes to birth a child on any spectrum whatsoever, but when it comes, the question remains: what level of support do they have to get from family and friends or should they be left to attempt suicide before we could put certain measures in place for them?

Blue is the colour for serenity, calmness and above all acceptance as we “light it up blue”. 

Mrs. Igwechi is a psychologist and behavior specialist.