An NEF Teacher Innovation Grant has helped bring Elizabeth Awosanya’s passion project to reality! Awosanya, who works with NCS Special Education programs, designed a creative and therapeutic literacy project to benefit more than 2,000 special needs students across the district. Elizabeth Awosanya’s initiative, Poetry Therapy for Special Need Kids, centers on a bilingual storybook she wrote —The Flower and the Ant / Itanna ati Kokoro— developed in both English and Yoruba. The project blends poetry, music, and visual storytelling to help students build emotional regulation skills while also experiencing culturally responsive content.
Awosanya’s years in the healthcare field and her experience as a parent have shown her the therapeutic effects of calming songs and poetry on children. Her book and accompanying audio and visual components aim to reduce meltdowns, improve transitions, strengthen communication and self‑advocacy, and increase students’ sense of calm and security.
To bring the project to life, Awosanya collaborated with illustrators, designers, and publishers. Grant funds supported these collaborations, including audio and visual clip creation, publishing, and printing 200 copies of the book for use in behavioral therapy sessions and classrooms.
This innovative blend of literacy, music, and therapeutic practice provides teachers and therapists across the district with a new tool to support student well‑being and emotional growth. You can view the video version of the book below!
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