Tribute
A TRIBUTE TO
NIHAL ARMSTRONG You have left us with many memories We miss you every day Sometimes we think of you Not more than today You will never be forgotten In our hearts you are and there you’ll stay You were a really good friend And this we will never forget . . . . I’m sure he loved his family most of all But shared himself with all who called And no prejudice nor hate But accepted life just on his faith His life was short but full of love For family, friends and god above So short a time with us it seems No time to really fill his dreams This is written to him in honour For all that we did share I just want him to know How much we really did care. Syeda Momena Aktar from 11Y, Camden Community School, London
26 Nihal Armstrong was a young man known to many of us. His friends, Speech Therapist, Learning Support Assistant and Teachers remember what he meant to them and to all of us in the struggle for inclusion.
Anne Emerson, Speech Therapist: In only 17 years Nihal achieved so much. Nihal died suddenly and unexpectedly last December in the midst of preparing for a major operation and his GCSEs. He had travelled a long way to this point through special and mainstream schools touching many people deeply on his way. I first met Nihal when he was six and Rahila, his mother, told me of her belief that Nihal understood much of what was said to him. She described the instances of him demonstrating an ability that was usually hidden by his disabilities. Her view differed from that of most of the people involved in assessing him and deciding on appropriate therapy and education. Nihal was attending two schools, the one for children with physical disabilities which Rahila felt was more appropriate to his needs and the school for children with severe learning disabilities which the local authority felt was more appropriate. I was invited to work with Nihal because the approach I had started to use, Facilitated Communication, led Rahila to think that I may be open to accepting her view of Nihal. I was used to using a visual approach and was challenged by the fact that Nihal had been assessed as being functionally blind. So I tried to adapt my methods but soon realised that in fact he could see well. We progressed little by little, using pictures, then words, letters and eventually Nihal started to point, with support to his body and arm, to indicate his choice. At first he was just proving understanding and demonstrating vision but gradually we introduced the possibility of Nihal expressing his own views and ideas. This he took to rapidly and with relish. It had been possible before to gauge his reactions through his smiles, laughs, cries and body movements. Now he could communicate greater subtleties and begin to tell us more about his interior life.
Nihal with Abdul Mukid and Donna Szombara
Nihal was cheeky, full of life, stubborn and motivated in turn, had strong opinions. Working with Nihal was sometimes frustrating and I felt like I