Children with CP need to be supported – Special Educator

Hannah Awadzi

 Mrs Trudy Segbefia, Special Education Coordinator in the Akuapem North Municipal Office, has reiterated the need for special needs teachers in normal schools to support children with Cerebral Palsy (CP).

She said: “We have special schools for all disability groups but none for children with CP, we have schools for the blind, deaf and the intellectually challenged,” and strongly called for special needs teachers in mainstream schools to help such children.

Mrs Segbefia was speaking at a CP parents’ support group meeting, in Accra.

Many of the parents of CP children said even though their CP offspring are intelligent, they are not able to send them to school because of the lack of support for them in normal educational facilities.

Mrs Segbefia said the best way to help educate children with CP is to let them go through normal schools with special educators to support them.

She explained that some children with CP have very severe cases and those ones could have special education.

She called for medical and educational assessment of CP children to know whether they are eligible for normal school or special school

A Ghanaian CP parent based in the United Kingdom who shared some experiences via a whatsapp platform said children in the UK normally start nursery at the age of three and those with special needs have to go through mainstream school.

He said: “In the UK it is only when your special needs child cannot cope with the mainstream education, then an assessment is done to know whether they qualified for special needs school.”

He however said special education in the UK is a more comfortable option for parents with special needs, since children in the special needs school get all the required services for free.