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Four-year-old also has seizures
CAMPBELL
There are times when many parents wish their kids would just “be quiet.”
But Nichelle Moore prays that one day her daughter, Shamir, will say something ... anything ... even a single word.
Shamir, who is autistic, is nonverbal.
The 41/2-year-old communicates with gestures, looks, body language and sounds; and her preschool teacher, Janice McConnell, swears some of Shamir’s sounds sound like “Hi,” “Bye” and “more.”
But Shamir, diagnosed with autism and epilepsy in May 2010, is essentially without words.
“More than money ... more than anything, I want to hear her talk,” Nichelle said.
Also on Nichelle’s wish list for Shamir is that she become self-sufficient and happy in life as she gets older.
An immediate need though, Nichelle said, is a home to rent that doesn’t have steps, which are difficult for Shamir to navigate because sometimes her vision is off and her seizures, especially when she wakes up.
She and Shamir and her other children, Mikell, 21/2, and Meoisha, 81/2, live in a small split-level house in Campbell. Shamir also has two brothers, Jabril and Matthew Moore Jr.
“I want to find a house that is suitable ... where Shamir wouldn’t have to worry about steps. I look everyday,” said Nichelle, a full-time assistant preschool teacher at the MYCAP Head Start/Early Head Start program on McCartney Road.
A 1993 graduate and a member of the last class to graduate of South High School before it closed, Nichelle trained as a child development associate through MYCAP.
Shamir has had a tough go almost from the moment of her birth on Sept. 3, 2008.
“I had a good pregnancy, and Shamir was born completely healthy,” her mother said.
But at 3 months, Shamir developed a very high temperature and was taken to a local hospital emergency room and then life-flighted to Akron Children’s Hospital in Akron suffering from seizures and a stroke.
She’s had as many as 25 seizures in a day, and takes several anti-seizure medications. Nichelle is in the process of getting a seizure specialist for Shamir.
Shamir is making progress. Therapists and her mother are teaching her to eat with utensils, and she loves music and to dance. The neurologist said that someday she might speak.
But, not yet.
Nichelle said prayer and support from family and friends and Shamir’s father, Matthew Moore Sr., helps get her through it.
He is a good father and Shamir is definitely “Daddy’s little girl,” Nichelle said.
Also, her older daughter, Meoisha, who at first didn’t understand about Shamir, has become a great help.
Sometimes when Shamir needs calming down, Meoisha sings “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and gets Shamir her “Woobie” blanket, her mother said.
Nichelle said she also has received assistance from several community programs and agencies, and also searches the Internet for information and to contact other parents with special-needs children.
For instance, the Mahoning County Help Me Grow program provided services to all the children and referred Nichelle to the Mahoning County Educational Service Center’s (MCESC) Special Needs Preschool Unit housed at Campbell Elementary School, just a few blocks from her home.
Shamir, who has an Individual Education Plan and a one-on-one personal assistant in the classroom, is an all-day student in the “inclusion” program, which means the class also has “typically developing” children, said Janice McConnell, teacher and intervention specialist with MCESC in the Campbell special-needs preschool.
McConnell, who previously worked 22 years for the Mahoning County Board of Developmental Disabilities, said inclusion is valuable for all the children.
Those who are developmentally delayed are able to interact socially and work in groups with their typically developing classmates, who in turn learn about compassion and helping others and that “it is okay to be different,” said McConnell.
Also, it gets kids ready for kindergarten, and having the unit in the same building where they will attend regular school is valuable because they will be familiar with the building and already know some of the children and teachers they will see in class and in the cafeteria and hall, she said.
Nichelle said she wants to use April, National Autism Awareness Month, to share her story to help other parents in similar circumstances.
“If you suspect autism, the earlier you get a diagnosis and treatment, the better.
“It’s tough having a child with special needs. It can be overwhelming. But I want to spread the word that you’re not alone,” she said.