Maher Al Shehab, 10 years old, is among the many participants who benefitted from the Basic Literacy and Numeracy (BLN) program being implemented by the Lebanese Organization for Studies and Training (LOST), in cooperation with UNICEF. He was outreached by the organization’s team who encouraged his parents to go and visit their nearby center at Bedneyel. The team interviewed Maher and his parents, and it was discovered that Maher suffers from speech delay due to a development disorder that makes him act younger than his real age.
The process was not easy at first, Maher refused to interact with his classmates and he continuously tried to escape the classroom. Moreover, the situation was so critical for Maher that he used to throw tantrums every time he got angry or when things did not go his way. Teachers have coped with Maher’s case with time, and developed new ways to deal with him and help him learn. They would let him go out of the class every once in a while, as well as giving him easy activities that he enjoyed. During the first visit from LOST’s inclusion specialist to the center of Bedneyel, Maher was in a state of anger, which required the inclusion specialist to intervene directly in order to help him, so as not to hurt himself. The LOST inclusion specialist worked with Maher through individual diagnostic sessions in the presence of his mother.
After adapting the explanations during speech and language sessions, in collaboration with a specialist and through psychic rehabilitation sessions, Maher was able to stay in class, learn the alphabets, distinguish the time and place, acquire the numbers, and count from 1 to 10. During this period, the LOST inclusion specialist noticed the presence of some scars and bruises on Maher’s body. The inclusion specialist visited Maher’s home in order to meet the parents and provide them with awareness sessions on communication, and violence against children. The parents showed increased responsiveness to the sessions with time, and they became more careful not to resort to physical or verbal violence when dealing with their children.
A few months into the cycle, Maher showed great improvement. He memorized many letters and words, showed more discipline, and became a better version of himself. Maher’s mother described this experience as life changing, as she expressed how thankful she was that her son was finally studying and socializing just like his peers.
