The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Children with Special Needs

Background: In the midst of the COVID 19 crisis children with special needs and their family were thought to not only have emotional and behavioural difficulties but also challenges caused by disruption of special interventions.Our goal is to shed light how the lives of special children’s affected and emotional and behavioral challenges.

Methods: Parents of children aged 4-6 years, who received special education on language or cognitive or social communication skills before the pandemic were enrolled in the study. The emotional, behavioural changes in parents and child; difficulties they faced in this process and their daily routines data during the outbreak were obtained from families via an online questionnare.

Results: A total of 117 families participated to the study:29 global development delay, 32 language delay; 32 autism spectrum disorder and 24 hearing impairment.COVID 19 had effected 94.6% of the families life negatively. While the one-on-one time duration with the mother and father had increased; families reported reduction in reading book, play, and overall activities durations.The median duration of screen time has increased from one to three hours(p<0.01).While mother`s intolerance to child was negatively correlated with physical activities duration (r=-0.37;p<0.01);It was shown that the child`s happy mood was correlated with reading a book (r=0.37;p<0.05).According to the families there was regression in development in 18.8% of children. The duration of overall daily activities was reported to be increased in 69% of nonregressed children compared to only 38.9% in children with parent reported regression(p<0.05).Special education practices at home was ceased by 17.2% of families and significant difference was found between the groups with and without regression in development in terms of the frequency of continuing special education at home(p<0.05).

Conclusion: Demonstrating high risk, resilience factors in families during the COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of providing a supportive environment at home for children with special needs.