Children have been affected the most with the new normal set by the pandemic. Right from school going to playing and studies, their entire routine has changed drastically subject to the restrictions. The process of learning online and staying indoors has definitely hampered their growth and enjoyment, making the kids vulnerable to stress and boredom. Amidst this situation, children with special needs and their parents are undergoing tremendous pressure, as they cope with learning online and following the norms of social distancing.
Children with Autism, Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have shown significant regression in their educational abilities. Let us understand how learning gets challenging for children with special needs and their parents.
Transition to online schooling:
One of the profound changes that have been witnessed during the pandemic is a sudden overhaul in the education system. The transition of physical classrooms to online schooling took place rather quicker than it was anticipated.
Technological challenges:
Operating electronic devices like laptops, tablets & smartphones and using applications comes handy to most children without much training or effort. However, it may be a major challenge for children with differential needs. Remote learning gets stressful for such children. They are used to receiving individual support and attention in schools from teachers, which is not the case in the current scenario of video classrooms. This situation gets equally tough for their parents, wherein the chances of availability of learning material in a digital format suitable for special needs, are bleak.
‘Zoom Fatigue’ does not affect only adults but children too. It is straining to maintain eye contact with a screen for hours, without classmates and other distractions and also, to process their audio-visual information from a small tablet or a computer.
Behavioral challenges:
Many a time, these children have negligible motivation and hence it becomes very difficult for them to sustain online education. They are also known to exhibit excessive energy and bouts of hyperactivity, which coupled with their lack of attention to the screen, can be a difficult task for parents.
Lack of assistance and expertise:
Most parents with differently abled children do not have a person to help at home, nor do they have an expert’s assistance, which special kids get in school, and can be tense and confusing to deal with. We must keep in mind that not all parents can afford to sit beside their child all day, while having work commitments to attend to. Managing both can be physically and mentally draining for parents. Additionally, pandemic led mental struggles like anxiety, stress and depression lead to reduced energy in parents to cope with the needs and struggles of their children.
Lack of social interaction:
While at school, children with differential needs got a chance to be around people and interact with them in an environment away from home. The lack of social interaction has significantly impacted the speech, language and level of communication among children with special needs. The lockdown has amplified the woes of parents and children with special needs, practically locking their physical, social and cognitive development and regressing their educational abilities.
The challenge of disinterest:
Most of these children have two issues. They find it difficult to move at the pace of online education. Most education provided to the child is curriculum based, which the child finds often difficult and are demotivated since their level of proficiency does not match that of the curriculum. To solve this it is imperative to provide a multi-sensory learning environment which has components of reading, listening and writing delivered over a blended learning approach. The biggest challenge that parents face is the disinterest towards education these children have, due to absolute lack of motivation. The sudden shift has made it more difficult for these children who already struggle to match the pace of class and learning.
What measures can be taken by parents to over-come the hardship?
The need of the hour is to make these children feel connected with their teacher, give them an opportunity to scale up their educational status online by providing an adequate scaffolding structure supported by experts and parents. This will help them come out more confident, improve their educational outcomes and also make them better equipped to take on their educational journey online.
Providing a movement break in between a session to a child with attention deficits, can help with bringing renewed focus to the task at hand. More importantly, it can be supportive for the student that the allowance of the break matches the internal landscape that he or she is experiencing, thereby creating a cycle of positivity for the student.
At times, the activation may be overwhelming for a child with Autism. Just getting the child to pause and regulate, come back to the here and now, instead of creating higher demands, goes a long way in continuation of the task. It need not always be filled with a “session score”.
As adversity brings opportunity, the above challenges can be a learning curve to build better facilities and understand this segment of children, who need special attention, while addressing needs of their parents. The pandemic has brought forward a chance to make education inclusive for all children and there is a huge scope for positive changes to be made through these learnings.
The article is authored by Dr. Dhaval Mody- Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Founder & CEO of SpEd@hom
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