Educationist: Safe Environment Essential for Children to Learn Effectively

Educationist Wael Al Awabdah has called on teachers to adopt a more compassionate approach when teaching children, particularly those with special needs, saying that a sense of safety must come before learning can take place.

Awabdah made the appeal during a webinar with the theme: Beyond the Cane and Command: The Modern Mystery for Neurodiverse Learning, organised by the Solution Nest Education Initiative.

Neurodiverse learning, he explained, is an approach that views differences in brain function, such as autism, ADHD and dyslexia, as natural variations rather than shortcomings. The method prioritises tailored teaching strategies to help learners with diverse cognitive profiles succeed.

Wael Al Awabdah, a Syrian-trained educational psychologist, described the use of fear to control children as outdated advising that it should be discarded.

“Fear blocks learning. If a child feels afraid, he or she is unlikely to learn anything because the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for processing information, shuts down when the learner feels fear or anxiety,” he said.

The educationist explained that a child with ADHD, for example, “is not choosing to be different. Their brain is wired for novelty, urgency and interest, not for time and future consequences.”

According to him, specialised training on how to transmit knowledge to learners with unconventional learning abilities is a necessary skill that should be developed and taught.

Teachers working with students, especially children who learn differently, should give such learners short tasks with clear, immediate payoffs, as this works better than long, delayed rewards.

Awabdah also dispelled the long-held notion that movement among some children with special needs is an act of misbehaviour. Awabdah said such conduct is often a neurological need to recalibrate in preparation for the next task.

He encouraged teachers to develop routines and predictability, as these lower anxiety and free up cognitive energy for learning. He also urged them to avoid sarcasm, idioms and vague instructions to prevent confusing pupils and students.

Awabdah explained that occasional meltdowns should not be seen as tantrums, but as signs of nervous system overload that require calm, not punishment.

He advised teachers to pay attention to sensory engineering, including turning off loud sounds, and to give short but effective “brain breaks” as a reset tool for the entire class.

Founder of Solution Nest Initiative, Henrietta Ikediashi, spoke on her motivation for setting up the initiative. She admitted that she was not always the person she is today.

Sitting in a classroom in Dubai, confident and outspoken, she listened to a discussion about children with learning differences and dismissed them as brats. Like many people back home, she believed they needed discipline, not understanding, and that a firm hand and higher expectations would set them right.

Then her instructor did something unexpected. She did not argue. She simply sat beside Henrietta and began to talk about neurodiversity, about children who experience the world differently and lack the words to explain it, and about the loneliness of being labelled difficult when what you really need is to be seen.

Henrietta broke down right there in the room. She wept for those children and, even more painfully, for the thousands across Nigeria hidden at home by families who love them but do not know how to help.

That moment gave birth to Soulution Nest Education Initiative. Registered in Nigeria in December 2025, the organisation trains teachers, equips parents, builds safeguarding systems, and creates economic pathways for young people the system has quietly abandoned.

It is not a charity that drops resources and leaves. Soulution Nest builds capacity that stays, and it does not carry out this work alone.

Trustee Olufunke Amos, mni, is one of the driving forces behind that effort. An educator and outspoken advocate for children, Funke does more than lend her name to the cause. She shows up.

She recently served as lead panellist at Soulution Nest’s webinar, Beyond the Cane and Command: Modern Mastery for Neurodiverse Learners, a conversation on replacing fear and punishment with knowledge and compassion in classrooms.

Funke sees every child the way Henrietta now does, not as a problem to manage, but as a person waiting to be understood.

That is what Soulution Nest represents: two women, one mission, and a refusal to leave any child behind.