Honing Special Children
It is not easy to handle smart and gifted children. The reason is, in their surrounding environment, the children are often considered strange and stupid.
Yeni Sahnaz
It is not easy to handle smart and gifted children. The reason is, in their surrounding environment, the children are often considered strange and stupid. Yeni Sahnaz felt that experience. Starting from there, she founded the Indonesian Caring for Gifted Children (IPAG) community so that they could be handled properly.
Yeni founded the community in 2012. Initially, the community was a shoulder to cry on for parents who have children with special intelligence and talents. As time went on, the community began to empower them.
The 58-year-old woman reflects on her personal experiences while caring for her second child, Satrio Wibowo, called Bowo. The youngest child was easy to get sick, hard to follow rules, critical, and his academic grades were below average. At school, he was labelled a stupid child and was often punished by the teacher. He was also often bullied by his friends.
However, Yeni saw Bowo has a special talent. Without being taught, he can speak in English like a native speaker. Amazingly, at the age of 12, Bowo was able to write 450-page science fiction novels in English when actually, he was never taught to write stories.
Bowo is also talented at drawing. Since he was 1.5 years old, he was drawing almost all the time. It was as if his imagination never stopped. He often finds it difficult to sleep because he is anxious to draw out his imagination.
"When I saw Bowo not sleeping until the middle of the night, restless, his brain kept thinking, I became emotional. Sometimes I lost control, suddenly my hand hit Bowo. If I remember that, I regret that I didn\'t know how to handle a special child at that time,” said Yeni in Bogor, West Java, Friday (9/10/2020).
Meanwhile, the surrounding environment, including schools, still do not believe in Bowo\'s special talent.
This incident prompted Yeni to seek information so that she could accompany Bowo and develop all his talents and intelligence. Meanwhile, the surrounding environment, including schools, still do not believe in Bowo\'s special talent.
Solving the deadlock
It is not easy to find the right information about how to deal with especially bright and gifted children. After searching for a long time, in the 2000s, Yeni found the writing of Julia Maria van Tiel, an Indonesian academic who lives in the Netherlands. The explanation from Julia, who is also struggling with a special child, solved Yeni\'s deadlock.
When the internet began to explode and social media such as Facebook came into existence, Yeni often shared her experiences on how to handle special children. She also frequently writes on the Kompasiana blog. From the blog, she began to start connecting with many parents with special children in many areas who are often confused and desperate.
Yeni\'s experience was shared openly, as if it were an oasis for parents who did not understand how to treat a special child, who in everyday reality, is considered stupid. In fact, one special child was considered mentally ill and was admitted to a mental hospital.
"From the story told by the parents, I felt sad, how could the child become a victim. Therefore, I wanted to share about gifted children. I started to use the experience and knowledge I got by creating a group on FB that developed into the IPAG community,” said Yeni.
Yeni Sahnaz (left) with her son Satrio Wibowo, who is a special child (gifted).
Yeni volunteered to answer questions from the confused parents. Some have contacted her personally, even coming to her house. Yeni, full of empathy, listens to their stories. Some have told her that they even nearly divorced because they were desperate to handle a special child.
There are also those who say that their special child was misdiagnosed and thus given long-term medication. Not to mention the stories of special children who are bullied in schools.
Bowo, Yeni\'s son, also experienced bad things. Because of that, Yeni was forced to send Bowo out of formal school when he was in junior high school. She then decided to home-school Bowo.
Yeni\'s persistence paid off. In 2019, Bowo received a bachelor’s degree in film/scenario writing from the Jakarta Institute of Arts.
"Usually, parents give up because they do not understand how to deal with children who are rejected at school because their academic achievement is below average. There was even a child who was admitted to a mental hospital,” said Yeni.
According to Yeni, the symptoms of a special child sometimes are vague. Sometimes they look like they have autism, Asperger’s, ADD, bipolar disorder, and others. Because of this, doctors sometimes misdiagnose and recommend that children participate in behavioural care and take medication. As a result, they are not detected as being a special child.
According to her, parents must be patient, follow the knowledge development about smart and special children, and share in the community.
"I convince parents to empower themselves. Nurture and education goes back to the family. So, I give support and advise them what should be done," said Yeni. According to her, parents must be patient, follow the knowledge development about smart and special children, and share in the community.
Yeni is ready to meet parents with special children. The conditions are easy. The meeting was held in the vicinity of Greater Jakarta, near a train station. In a meeting like that, she would encourage parents, explaining that caring for children is like caring for plants, different types of plants require different kinds of handling.
"I emphasize to the mother or father that your child can be anything they want. However, sometimes, those who come are disheartened, desperate, want to divorce because husband and wife blame each other, when in fact, this is due to the lack of understanding between the two,” said Yeni.
Yeni thinks that the support for a special child cannot be merely a social activity. There needs to be an official institution that focuses on dealing with special children. She visited the Education and Culture Ministry and convinced them of the need to establish an inclusive school for intelligent and special children. She also went to the Health Ministry to give advice so that knowledge about children\'s talents could also be understood by health workers.
"If there are funders, I dream of establishing a talent information center. Children with any condition can be detected [their talents], providing counselling for children and parents, in addition to making a diagnosis," she said firmly.
Yeni Sahnaz
Place, DOB: Rangkasbitung, 18 April 1962
Education:
- Elementary-high school in Bogor
- Diploma in Library & Informatics, Bogor Agricultural University
- S-1 Biology Education, STKIP Arrahmaniyah
