19-year-old UAE student stops growing at age 7

Suffering from a rare medical condition, 19-year-old Hassan Ali Qafaf looks no more than a 10-year old child.

Hassan is currently studying in grade 12 and suffers from poor physical growth, yet is among the top students of his school.

His mother said they faced great difficulties in getting Hassan’s admission into a school as he showed symptoms of poor growth caused by hypo hypoglycemia at the age of 7.

She added many schools refused to accept him but fortunately he was accepted by a school and admitted to  kindergarten when he was 7, when his physical growth stopped.

She added that his mental growth has been normal and he is equal to his peers. He achieves 90% marks each year.

She is grateful to the Ministry of education (MoE) for letting students with special needs get admission  in normal schools which helped her son.

Some schools are equipped with facilities and well trained teachers who deal with such students patiently.

She added that the daily  interaction with normal students helped significantly improve and also develop his social skills.

Hassan is currently undergoing an intensive remedial programme, which will help him grow a little bit more and live comfortably in the society.

However, Hassan  told Emarat Al Youm, he did face challenges in dealing with the society and was often harassed in school and others outside as well.

But he says he dealt wisely with such situations and people began respecting him as he proved himself.

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