Pals hear Naomi’s voice for first time
A brave autistic Hamilton girl has been shortlisted for a prime national award.
Naomi Gwynne, 10, is up for the prize in the Proudest Moment category of disability charity Contact’s awards.
Young Beckford Primary pupil Naomi has selective mutism – a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school.
In two years at nursery and five years at school she has never had the courage to speak.
That is until earlier this year when she came up with a clever way of letting her classmates and teachers hear her voice for the first time.
Mum of two Miriam said: “At the end of January Naomi’s class were doing Scottish poems and she really wanted to join in but just couldn’t.
“She practised and practised the Bill Keys poem ‘A Dug, A Dug’ at home but just could not speak in school due to extreme anxiety.”
Naomi then suggested recording herself at home saying the poem just like her peers.
Miriam added: “The next morning she woke asking if her class teacher could hear her voice for the first time.
“So we went into school early and let her teacher watch the video – and it brought tears to her eyes.
“The teacher asked if the rest of her classmates could hear her voice.
“Naomi agreed and the next day when the other children were reciting the poem they got to watch Naomi do the same via video.”
She even agreed to her video, and voice, being played in assembly so the entire school got to hear her voice for the first time ever.
Naomi’s twin brother Isaac, who has autism and neurofibromatosis, was recently diagnosed with a brain tumour and has undergone surgery.
“Hearing Naomi had been shortlisted was the lift to my spirits that I needed,” said Miriam, from May Street in Hamilton.
Susan Walls, manager of Contact in Scotland, said: “We often hear when things go wrong for families.