Autism advocate calls for more aides for children on the spectrum

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

Founder of Autism Unit­ed TT, An­nisa Khan-Mo­hammed, is urg­ing au­thor­i­ties to place more teacher aides in schools to bet­ter sup­port chil­dren on the autism spec­trum, say­ing gaps in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem con­tin­ue to place strain on both stu­dents and par­ents.

She made the call over the week­end as her or­gan­i­sa­tion host­ed ac­tiv­i­ties to mark Autism Aware­ness Month, in­clud­ing the launch of what is be­lieved to be Trinidad and To­ba­go’s first sen­so­ry-friend­ly bar­ber­shop and a com­mu­ni­ty beach clean-up at Gran Chemin Beach in Moru­ga.

Draw­ing from her ex­pe­ri­ence as the par­ent of a 12-year-old child with autism, Khan-Mo­hammed said con­sis­tent class­room sup­port re­mains a ma­jor chal­lenge.

“What I would re­al­ly like to see go­ing for­ward is more sup­port for chil­dren in the area of ed­u­ca­tion and pro­vid­ing aides for them in school,” she said.

She point­ed to a short­age of aides and the dif­fi­cul­ty fam­i­lies face in main­tain­ing that sup­port.

“When you lose an aide… there aren’t many in the sys­tem, and when you do get one it is dif­fi­cult to keep them,” she said, adding that re­as­sign­ment dis­rupts a child’s de­vel­op­ment and rou­tine.

Khan-Mo­hammed de­scribed her fam­i­ly’s ex­pe­ri­ence nav­i­gat­ing the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem as “an up­hill bat­tle.”

Her com­ments came as Autism Unit­ed TT launched two ini­tia­tives aimed at rais­ing aware­ness and pro­mot­ing in­clu­sion.

One was a sen­so­ry-friend­ly bar­ber­shop at Gun­ness Trace, St Mary’s Vil­lage, Moru­ga, de­signed for chil­dren with autism and oth­er sen­so­ry sen­si­tiv­i­ties. The space, op­er­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a lo­cal bar­ber, is in­tend­ed to pro­vide a calm en­vi­ron­ment for chil­dren who may strug­gle with tra­di­tion­al groom­ing set­tings.

“No two chil­dren are the same on the spec­trum and they have dif­fer­ent needs, which would be ac­com­mo­dat­ed here,” Khan-Mo­hammed said.

She said rou­tine ac­tiv­i­ties like hair­cuts can be over­whelm­ing due to sen­so­ry trig­gers.

Her hus­band, Rasheed Mo­hamed, said it took years to find a bar­ber who could ac­com­mo­date their son.

“You go from one bar­ber to the next be­cause some say they can’t deal with it,” he said.

Khan-Mo­hammed said the ini­tia­tive is part of a wider push to en­cour­age busi­ness­es to be­come more in­clu­sive.

“It’s 2026 and it’s time for them to get on board with sen­so­ry-friend­ly—not just autism, but chil­dren who have spe­cial needs and sen­si­tiv­i­ties,” she said.

She said small ad­just­ments can help build con­fi­dence and in­de­pen­dence.

Autism Unit­ed TT al­so host­ed a beach clean-up un­der the theme “In­spir­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty through dis­abil­i­ties,” in­volv­ing chil­dren from the com­mu­ni­ty, in­clud­ing those di­ag­nosed with autism and oth­ers be­lieved to be on the spec­trum.

“It is im­por­tant for them to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for their en­vi­ron­ment and the com­mu­ni­ties in which they live,” she said.

Khan-Mo­hammed al­so high­light­ed the need for greater aware­ness, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties such as Moru­ga and St Mary’s, where many chil­dren re­main un­di­ag­nosed.

“Autism does not have a look,” she said. “A child could be ful­ly func­tion­al or ful­ly de­pen­dent, and some­times it is dif­fi­cult to tell.”

Bar­ber Ray­mond De Leon said un­der­stand­ing autis­tic chil­dren and mak­ing pro­vi­sions for their care is im­por­tant, adding that pa­tience and kind­ness are key. He urged the pub­lic to move away from stig­ma and ap­proach be­hav­iour­al dif­fer­ences with em­pa­thy.

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said Stu­dent Sup­port Ser­vices is be­ing re­vamped to of­fer more as­sis­tance to strug­gling stu­dents, in­clud­ing the ex­pan­sion of teacher aides as part of the re­struc­tur­ing.