Son’s ASD diagnosis led to Marcia Smith investing in herself and the ...
From 3A
say another thing,” his mother said. Smith took Jared to the US five years ago on vacation. To date he has not said how his vacation was but occasionally he sees some things on television and relate them to his vacation.
Jared also loves to cook and eat. “If push comes to shove he will help himself. He makes a fine sausage stew. He fries eggs and sausages and can cook rice,” Smith said. “Most children on the spectrum do not like to wear shirts. When you find Jared at home he is without a shirt. When he is cooking and there is a spill he says a little burn won’t kill him.”
According to Smith, some parents beat their children because they think they cannot learn. “That is due to not enough awareness or not enough acceptance of children’s disabilities and they cast blame on either parents’ sides of their families. When I had 28 students, if I had five fathers coming with the children, I had a lot,” she added.
She noted Jared has taught her much. Because of Jared, she became a member of the President’s Youth Award Republic of Guyana (PYARG) scheme and is now a PYARG unit leader.
Helping hands
Inspired by Jared, on April 16, 2012, Smith opened Gifted Hands to focus on special needs education. It is registered with the MoE as a private school and was Initially located on Parade Street, Kingston. However, on August 4, 2020, the building that housed Gifted Hands was gutted by fire. “I lost 95 per cent of everything I accumulated from 2012 to 2020. Now we are at 192 First Street and Stone Avenue, Campbellville where I had to restart. The place is much bigger. However, when I closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, I had 28 students. When I reopened last year on February 7, I restarted with five,” she said. “To date I have 12 on the register. Two are non-verbal, seven are with Down syndrome and three are on the autism spectrum. Students are taught reading, maths and language.”
Smith works with teenagers and young adults, as the ages of those with special needs are not chronological. “Their cognitive development says it all. My eldest student turned 55 on Saturday and she behaves like a child of five or six years,” she said. Some of her students, like the 55year-old, have been with the centre since its opening. “It is a safe space and a place where they can socialise. Apart from the academics, we teach them life skills such as doing their own laundry and making simple meals,” she added.
The school is the beneficiary of donors from a few entities including the Mohammed family and Digicel.
For the first time, last year, her students received government’s cash grant given to school children. Smith also bought Jared a laptop with the $100,000 special grant the government gave last year to people with disabilities. “Parents have to invest in their children with special needs. It is not living in denial. It may take time to accept but it is only with acceptance you can move forward,” she noted.
Smith attended South Georgetown Secondary and the Carnegie School of Home Economics then was married. Prior to opening Gifted Hands, Smith was a stay-at-home mom with four children. “After I got married, I felt I didn’t have to work outside of the home. My world changed after hearing that Jared might never know me. I said my child will not sit and drool. My child will develop and learn. Between three and four years he was just sitting and doing nothing. After seven years he was making sentences. I encourage parents, not because your child says nothing at three years that means he or she will never speak. Jared talks so much, sometimes I have to tell him to let he and his imaginary friends be quiet,” she added.
“Jared made me go back to school and enter special education. I take every training opportunity possible to educate myself and staff in education and specifically special needs education. Whenever there is training at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development we take part. Whenever NCERD holds head teachers’ meetings, we are there.”
Children with autism are fully diagnosed by six years old. In Guyana, they are tested at the Regional Diagnostic Centre located at the Cyril Potter College of Education Campus, Turkeyen.
Depending on the children’s progress Smith recommends placements for them at other special needs schools. “It depends on their abilities, levels of development and the parents. If parents are in denial about their children’s abilities there is nothing more I can do,” she noted.
She also makes recommendations to the special needs officers attached to the MoE and also for some to be tested at Regional Diagnostic Centre.
The Ministry of Agriculture is currently assisting Gifted Hands with a shadehouse in which the students grow garden crops. “We got seedlings from NAREI [National Agricultural, Research and Extension Institute]. The first crop perished due to bad weather. Before school closed for the Easter, students took home lettuce, pak choy and mustard callaloo. We’re into a third crop… watering the plants is a part of their daily activity,” Smith said.
Children get to the school as early as 7.30 am but activities begin at 8.30 am. They do physical exercises. Reading, language and maths are done on a one-on-one basis. “I have a non-verbal student who comes for reinforcement. I liaise with the school to get an idea of the work he does. He comes from 1.00 pm to 2.30 pm,” she added. Gifted Hands also obtained permission to use the Colgrain Pool. Due to the pandemic the pool was closed. When the centre reopened last February, permission was granted to restart.
One of Smith’s past students, Annison Forde, is a Special Olympian who secured gold, silver and bronze medals at the Special Olympics held in Orlando, Florida last year. At the Special Olympics, he was diagnosed with also being deaf and immediately outfitted with hearing aids. Smith said his achievement has to date not been recognised by those in the state’s authority. He is now a member of the Guyana Police Force.
In 2016, Smith said, a Catholic priest, Fr Ramesh Vanan, was in Guyana for a brief period. He did a documentary on her, Jared and the centre, which won the best documentary award at the Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television awards in the promotion of social justice category.