Children living with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities (autism, trisomy 21), have skills. We knew it, and the proof was given this Friday, July 14, at the Specialized Education Center of the NGO Acting for Disability at School, on the occasion of the celebration, in this structure, in anticipation, World Youth Skills Day (set for July 15 each year), by SLB (formerly Schlumberger) as part of its Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED) program. An educational awareness program whose objective, we learn, is “Schlumberger’s desire to raise awareness and awaken the youngest to universal knowledge”.

They were four hearing-impaired children from the center for hearing-impaired children of the Provincial Department of Social Affairs of Port-Gentil, nine children from the Xavier Center for Special Education, two final-level students, including a recent baccalaureate with psychomotor disorders, who been subjected to so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities, a learning approach that allows students to develop specific skills and a state of mind that promotes creativity, collaboration and problem-solving abilities specific.

The children were subjected to three activities: the traveling water, the electric circuit with switch and the filtering of the water.

The first was to perform an experiment to pass water from one glass to another without the help of anyone. The second, to make a simple electrical circuit and the third to filter dirty water. For each of these activities, the children learned to use simple, everyday materials: glass, water, paper, paper towel, coal, sand, gravel, gloves... All in a good-natured atmosphere.

An experience which, according to Annie Edwige Adanhodou, president of the Ong Agir pour le Handicap à l'Ecole, would benefit from being renewed if not to be perpetuated, as it has, on its playful side, in particular, been a real attraction for children, and gave ideas to the support staff of the Xavier Center for Special Education.

For all practical purposes, SLB has developed an educational site SEED which is worth a look (https://www.slb.com/seed) and which has a French version.

Photo: a group of children carrying out one of the activities

Fidèle AFANOU EDEMBE

Port-Gentil/Gabon