COVID Impacts on Students with Special Needs

Haley Nauman

Primary Focus: How we as educators can best support special needs students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Three Main Learning Targets:

Identifying ways we can help a special needs child who is struggling with their mental health

How can we as educators help students with special needs who are struggling with virtual learning?

What are the social impacts on children with special needs during the current pandemic?

Special Needs and Mental Health

How can we as educators identify ways to help a special needs child who is struggling with their mental health? The pandemic, combined with a transition to virtual learning will have long lasting effects on children, including those with special needs and their mental health (Perera, 2019). For the foreseeable future, educators will be faced with the challenges that complicate a student’s ability to learn. These complications included increased depression, anxiety amongst students and hyperactivity. Kids who are struggling the most are the ones that are already living in high stress and traumatic environments. According to the Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, approximately 30-50% of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities may also have mental health conditions (Mwarfield, 2017). That’s more than the average for all other children. While the child may also be struggling academically, these mental health issues may go unnoticed.

Virtual Learning and Students with Special Needs

Difficulty staying focused and a lack of motivation are some of the effects that virtual learning may have on children, including those with special needs (Perera, 2019). Students with special needs have challenges with learning independently. They may need more individualized help, such as having an assignment broken down into smaller steps, or even just frequent check-ins to ensure success. In a classroom setting, teachers can give feedback and extra support if needed. Virtual learning doesn’t always allow the flexibility of doing this. It’s extremely difficult for a teacher to give one on one attention to a specific student when they are holding a Zoom meeting or whatever the form of virtual learning may be. With virtual learning, parents are a child's primary source of academic support. If the parent can utilize the tools they have at home, the parents and teacher can team up, and are doing their best to support the child with the tools they have at home, the outcome can be successful (Courtenay, 2020).

Covid and the Social Impact on Children with Special Needs

Social and emotional learning forms the foundation for other types of learning. Among the skills that matter are the ability to understand your own emotions, empathize with others, make decisions, cope with challenges, develop relationships and take responsibility for mistakes (Sohn, 2020). Spending time playing with other children is absolutely essential for the development of a child’s social skills. A person’s social skills will be something that carries them through all future education, employment, and relationships (Mwarfield, 2017). With this being said, learning appropriate social skills at a young age is crucial in development. While many schools are doing virtual learning, a child may be struggling with his or her social skills by not having that in person contact that they need. If they don’t get the chance to sit beside another student in a classroom, play on the playground, or play a game of tag in a physical education class, this can absolutely impact their ability to thrive in a social environment for years to come.

Conclusion

In my opinion, all children are struggling with the current Covid-19 pandemic. Children with special needs especially suffer without face-to-face contact with other students or teachers. Teaching students online proves especially difficult. This also impacts social skills and social interactions as well. A lack of routine can leave children feeling restless and unsure (Recio-Barbero, 2020). Families, caregivers and teachers who are taking care of children with special needs need our support. It’s important to monitor all children’s mental health during this pandemic, not only those with special needs. Talking with a child about their fears and letting them express their feelings can be beneficial (Sohn, 2020). Not every child reacts the same way and may be struggling with different things, whether it be due to the ongoing pandemic, virtual learning or another unmentioned topic. Maintaining routines, connecting with friends (even if it’s virtually) and trying to find a hobby that they enjoy may help with the social impacts.

QUESTIONS

Which percentage of special needs children may also have a mental health condition?

A) 30-40%

B) 40-50%

C) 30-50%

D) 20-40%

Mrs. Johnson has a students with special needs who is struggling to complete his work virtually. How can she best support him?

A) Set up a 1 on 1 zoom meeting with him

B) Meet at his home or a safe location to help him in person

C) Reach out to his parents to show them ways to assist/offer resources to help

D) All of the above

References

Courtenay, K., & Perera, B. (2020). COVID-19 and people with intellectual disability: Impacts of a pandemic. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 37(3), 231-236. doi:10.1017/ipm.2020.45

Mwarfield. (2017, July 17). Mental health for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Navigate Life Texas. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.navigatelifetexas.org/en/diagnosis-healthcare/mental-health-for-children- with-intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities.

Perera, B., Audi, S., Solomou, S., Courtenay, K., & Ramsay, H. (2019, December 29). Mental and physical health conditions in people with intellectual disabilities: Comparing local and national data. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bld.12304.

Recio-Barbero, M., Sáenz-Herrero, M., & Segarra, R. (2020). Deafness and mental health: Clinical challenges during the COVID- 19 pandemic. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 12(S1), S212–S213. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000729

Sohn, E. (2020, June 18). Worried about your kids' social skills post-lockdown? The New York Times. Retrieved September 25, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/parenting/kids-social-needs-quarantine.html.

Answers to questions:

1- C, 30-50%

2- D, all of the above

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