A 2-year-old Russian girl was turned away from a local nursery because of physical deformities, as staff fear her appearance “may scare the other kids.” Meanwhile, they have insisted the toddler have an operation to repair her extraordinarily wide skull before they consider letting her join the other children.
Sofya Zakharova was born with an undiagnosed condition characterized by a skull deformity that has left her with a forehead that is wider than normal. Her fingers and toes are also fused together.
The little girl’s parents claim they have been assured that Sofya will be enrolled at the village nursery once her appearance is “improved.” Sofya’s mother, Svetlana Gizatullina, regaled the instruction: “First, you need to arrange an operation so she can go to nursery school like an ordinary child,” she said.
In the meantime, experts are warning Sofya’s mother, Svetlana, and her husband, Rasul Zakharova, that their little girl’s development will suffer if she is deprived of peer socialization.
A heartwarming video of Sofya with her mother and other family members, shared by the Russian news outlet, shows the sweet child laughing and playing with a box of paints. She may seem like any happy child with a minimally disabling physical abnormality.
Russian officials are looking into the nursery’s refusal to admit Sofya as well as the status of the little girl’s medical needs. Allegedly, the operation that Sofya needs to separate her fingers and improve her dexterity is constantly being postponed; the sooner it is done, the sooner Sofya can begin learning to write, draw, and feed herself.
Sergei Mikhailov, Sophia’s grandfather, articulated the family’s frustrations. “We have such a catastrophe here. [I] do not understand. In Ufa, in Orenburg, in Moscow, we have such doctors,” he said, claiming that these same doctors must be “cheating.”
“They said that they would do the operation [but then] were silent about this,” he adds.
Sofya currently lives with her parents and grandparents in a house in the tiny village of Alatana. They live without running water, without a stove, and without central heating.
To make matters worse, Svetlana is not eligible to receive disability benefits on Sofya’s behalf; she is not even entitled to an allowance for basic needs, such as diapers.
All the while, Svetlana has known that Sofya will likely be denied admission to the village school in a few years’ time; the nursery’s refusal is one in a long series of bitter disappointments.
Sofya’s case was adopted by a local charity, Rainbow of Goodness, but they have yet to make headway. However, Radiy Khabirov, the head of the Bashkortostan government, reported that governmental officials have visited Sofya’s family; at the very least, they plan to relocate the family so that they don’t have to endure the freezing winter in an unheated home.
“I understand that if it were not for the intervention of the charitable foundation, there would have been no meetings on this and no relocation,” Khabirov said. “It’s already clear that the rights of the child and parents are violated, and there will now be an appropriate legal assessment.”
Khabirov added that he would make it his personal mission to check in with Sofya’s case periodically.
Why Is Peer Interaction So Important?
Educational psychologist Ekaterina Belan commented on the ramifications for Sofya’s development in an interview with Russia’s NTV: “The sooner she gets the experience of interactions, the easier it will be for her to cope with the conditions in which she lives and grows,” she said.“The more interactions she gets, the easier it will be for her to accept herself for who she is.”
Numerous aspects of children’s socialization have implications upon their body image in particular, the study’s authors explained. Social comparisons are fundamental to a child’s developing sense of self; particularly for a child like Sofya, whose physical differences will make her conspicuous to her peers, time is of the essence.
“Children learn about their own abilities, differences, strengths, and weaknesses via social comparisons,” said the study’s authors.
In the absence of an admission to her local nursery, this will become one of Sofya and her parents’ primary tasks over the coming months; ensuring that Sofya grows up knowing her worth and honing her sense of self despite an inability to place herself among her peers.
For now, Sofya and her family’s fight for medical aid and inclusivity continues.
