The Founder of Mindful Bridges Foundation, Rosemary Mbanefo, has clarified that poor parenting is not responsible for autism, urging Nigerians to stop stigmatizing parents of autistic children.
Mbanefo spoke on Saturday in Abuja during an autism awareness engagement and walk organized by the Foundation to debunk myths and promote acceptance for persons living with autism.
She said there is a widespread misconception that autism is caused by the way a child is raised.
“I’ve cleared the air so that it’s not been a cause, yeah it’s not been due to poor parenting. Exactly, autism is not caused by poor parenting,” she said.
According to her, autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that can happen in any family and is not a result of parental failure or a curse.
“Anybody can have autism. Any family can have a child with autism. It is not because the parents failed or did not train the child well. We need to stop the blame and start understanding,” Mbanefo stated.
She said Mindful Bridges Foundation is committed to creating awareness, promoting acceptance and providing lifelong support for autistic individuals through skills empowerment and advocacy.
Also speaking at the event, a scientist, Amarachi Clara Onyebuchi clarified that autism is a neurodevelopmental genetic defect and not caused by consumption of Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs.
Onyebuchi, who spoke on the verified causes of autism amid growing public misconceptions linking the condition to food, said science has established that it is primarily a defect in genetics.
“Autism is said to be like a neurodevelopmental genetic issue, so it’s a defect in genetics. So that is like number one thing for autism,” she said.
Addressing the question of whether GMOs cause autism, the scientist said scientifically, the answer is no.
“If we ask, do GMOs cause autism? Scientifically I would say no, because GMO is genetically mutating organisms. For me GMO doesn’t cause it because we are talking about neurodevelopmental genetic defect here,” she explained.
She however noted that nutrition plays a role in general human development, but maintained that the number one verified cause of autism remains a genetic defect.
“What we eat helps in our development as a human being, but number one thing scientifically right now is that it’s a genetic defect,” she added.
On her part, the Fashion Facilitator at Mindful Bridges Foundation, Ginikachi Duruaku, said handling autistic children for the first time has been a very interesting and eye-opening experience, insisting there is big hope for parents.
Duruaku, who facilitates vocational training in fashion and creative skills at the Foundation, said she previously doubted if autistic children could actually learn, but her direct experience has changed her perception.
“I think it’s actually been very, very interesting. It’s my first time actually handling autistic children and seeing them pick up, seeing them repeat things over and over again,” she said.
“They are not like the normal regular people that you know you can just teach something and they are getting at once, but having to repeat yourself and eventually you see that they are actually picking up.
“Before now I didn’t think they could actually pick up but when I read up about it and with my experience so far, I have realized that actually they pick up very not very quickly but they do pick up eventually and it’s so wonderful,” she stated.
She urged parents not to give up on their children.
“There is actually hope. There is very, very big hope. If you give it a try, just come and give it a try, when you give it a try you will testify and see that there is hope. The fact that your child has autism is not the end. It does not say that your child cannot make it or cannot grow or get other skills,” she said.
According to her, some autistic children are very intelligent and excel even in reading and other skills when given the right support.
“Some of them are actually very intelligent, you know they pick up things even reading, they read very well and all of that. There are even some that you see you will not even realize that this child has autism until you get very close and all of that but eventually you realize that they actually pick up. It’s not the end of the world,” she added.
Kuni Tyessi
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