The Pandemic and Children with Special Needs

By Jenny Worden 

JRN News Reporter

The global pandemic has taken its toll on children with special needs, disrupting their routines, upending their educations, and dismantling their social networks. But the emergency also provided students, parents, and educators with some powerful technology tools such as Telehealth and video chatting that could prove helpful not only now but also in the future.

Seven million children suffer from disabilities, ranging from mental to physical, that need specialized services to partake in school, said the author of The COVID-19 Pandemic: Technology use to support the Wellbeing of Children that was released in 2020, Karen Goldschmidt.

Although many children have been negatively affected by the pandemic, the study found the technology that has arisen because of the COVID-19 restrictions has positively affected special education and children's lives.

“Keeping children and their families safe during the pandemic, especially during the early days, meant fewer social connections for students. They were not attending school, going on playdates, or playing outdoors with other children. Social and physical activity are key to better motor development and focus, lower obesity rates, reduced attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, less anger, aggression, stress, and depression” said Goldschmidt.

Shannen Desmond, a special education teacher in Norton, said her students are not getting as much physical activity as they were before the pandemic.

“I’ve noticed that my students have not talked about going outside and playing as much, there is more talk of playing video games and watching movies; I think that this has a lot to do with the pandemic and the parents being safe with their children” she said.

While there is a lack of in-person contact in the social area of a children's lives, families seem to be spending more time together and doing activities like walking, biking, and completing school work. Students with special needs and their parents can really benefit by doing small activities like these with their family members according to the study.

Another way to stay in touch socially that has become more common during the pandemic is video chatting. Although this is not in-person socialization, Zooming and other forms of video chatting help keep children in touch with others while being safe.

The next area of a child’s life that is being impacted is their physical well-being. To date, children are not considered in the high-risk group of the virus and suffer lesser degrees of severity when dealing with sickness, but they can still be carriers and spreaders.

“In my class, there have been a lot of my students ’parents who have gotten sick from the virus and even a grandparent of a student who had sadly passed away from it” said Desmond. 

She expresses that this is just an example of  children’s suffering from heightened anxiety.

“A lot of my students get overly fixated on things that have to do with COVID, like washing their hands excessively wiping desks and wearing a mask” said Desmond.

“Some of my students have a hard time with masks; it is hard for them to wear it for long periods,” said Desmond

A positive thing that has come about during the pandemic is Telehealth, which is… Telehealth is used in place of in-person doctor appointments. However, Pediatric health care providers are unable to provide Telehealth for all children due to differences in licensing laws by state and gaps in insurance policy coverage according to the AAP.

Telehealth provides easy healthcare access for families with children with special needs, which could ease the burden of traveling to multiple appointments and benefit families even after the pandemic.

Staying in close touch with specialists, care providers and educators is critical for children’s well-being.

Delivery of specialized therapy online opens the possibilities for services to children with special needs in remote areas. This is allows for new opportunities for people who may not have had previous access.

According to Hill, the author of The Pandemic Is a Crisis for Students With Special Needs, special needs students “get individualized attention from professionals who are trained in, and deeply familiar with, their unique ways of thinking, perceiving, and processing. But no amount of love and care at home can turn the average parent into a special education teacher overnight.”

Technology has also helped professionals better work together to support students.

Individual Education Plans are traditionally written out on paper; because of COVID-19 and school closures, special education teachers can meet online and discuss the Individualized Education Program in an electronic format (Silva, 2020).

Video technology such as Zoom made it easier for students to stay connected, which has made the transition back to in-person schooling less of a culture shock.

Sometimes, technology cannot help though, said Desmond. Some children and families do not have access to computers and others may not have the training to use them.

“In my classroom, I have to drop off worksheet packets for my students to work on because they either don’t have a computer or have a hard time using it,” said Desmond.

To help with that, Desmond said her school was in the process of allowing students to bring home laptops so that online learning would be accessible to everyone.

School districts throughout the nation are trying to fill technology gaps according to, Gold Schmit.

As the pandemic winds down, families and educators hope the lives of special needs students will return to normal, perhaps with newfound technology tools to make life easier. Technology can not replace in person learning but it is a great resource. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvjleusPUvI