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• 1 2020-04-12T12:12:24-07:00 Parents and families with special needs children (Brooke Robinson) 44 plain 2020-05-24T15:31:37-07:00

  Fact-checked source: Sylvia Mochabo, "Dealing with children with special needs during the Corona Virus pandemic"

  On March 24, 2020, CEO and founder of Andy Speaks 4 Special Needs Persons Africa, Slyvia Mochabo, spoke out on a live virtual interview with Kenya Citizen TV. She tells the public what life has been like for her and her two special needs children since the pandemic. Youtube link.
  
  
  NPR's Elissa Nadworny has been talking to parents of special needs children about their new normal as states have locked down. MARLA MURASKO talks to Nadworny about daily life now with her 14 year old son Jacob.
  
   

  Looking Deeper: Five Facts Checked

  In order to better understand the claims made in this interview, I've done research to verify five facts Sylvia presents.

  autistic kids are used to routine 

  I wanted to fact check this because it is a broad statement and I wanted to know if it applied to all ASD people/kids. Acording to https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org/  this applies to most ASD kids as well as other special needs persons where an "insistence on routine and sameness can only be categorized as obsessive and compulsive".

  A meltdown is when they are frustrated and they cannot express themselves. Most people call it tantrums but for special children it's actually a meltdown when the environment is complex or the situation has changed their routine is broken

  This seemed like an interesting fact about how a tantrum for neurotypical children is a meltdown for special needs children. I was interested in the difference. https://www.autismsociety-nc.org/ says "Like a seizure, it can happen out of nowhere, and it can be very frightening and traumatic for the autistic person" and can have different faces such as disassociation, crying, or even growling.

  [special needs kids] have not been considered. no one is talking about how special-needs children are learning.

  This was an important claim because when a problem is not talked about it is also usually not fixed. An article on USA today confirms that the way students are expected to learn during the quarantine does not line upon with the way special needs kids learn.

   we have medical appointments how do we go about that there are very key appointments that are not afford to miss we have medications that we use every day can the government be able to make such things accessible in one of the platforms

  This was interesting because if its true, special needs kids would have to leave quarantine. Acording to all other sources this is accurate and not being adressed.

  
  No [Nuerotypical] Child Left Behind

  The demands for special needs parents are not unlike those of a front line nurse: long hours and chaos all done with a smile. Any child who may learn differently or have physical or mental differences from typical children are considered to be special needs. (Levine, 2020) Special needs families are often forgotten about but they are often the ones that need the most attention.  Depending on the child’s diagnosis they may require frequent visits to the doctor, medication, physical therapy or special programs they need to learn. All of these needs are normally met by a school or other institution made specifically for such things. They have trained professionals, experience, and equipment that families might not otherwise have access to. (Mochabo, 2020)

  For special needs kids, school teaches more than just math, science, and history. It is at school that many learn to tie their shoes, talk to their peers, zip their coat or even work on life skills such as cooking or taking a shower.(Dyer, 2020) These are skills that many children learn easily or never even have to be taught in the first place. Blind children might need to learn to read braille which is something regular teachers and their parents may have no idea how to do, let alone teach.
  
  The COVID-19 pandemic resulting in school and business shutdowns also resulted in these families losing almost all of their support systems. Parents are concerned with how this quarantine may affect their children’s learning as well as physical and mental wellbeing. Dr. Grandin, and expert in the field of autism which she herself has, said

  At age 2 1/2 I was placed in a structured nursery school with experienced teachers.  Children with autism need to have a structured day, and teachers who know how to be firm but gentle.

  During this unprecedented time they are getting neither. Their parents are most likely not experienced and depending on if the parent(s) work or have other children, their day may be far from structured. ASD children (and any children really) are used to routine. They know what days they do things like go to church or therapy and when their routines are disturbed it can often result in a meltdown which can include: crying, disassociation, or harmful behavior to themselves or others. Lockdown has thrown their routines out of the window completely.

   Children with ADHD are now trapped indoors when sometimes all they want to do is run. Children with specific learning plans that require hands on learning are now being asked to sit and watch videos to learn or even teach themselves. All the while parents are expected to have their child(ren) keep up with their learning.(Mochabo, 2020) This is something people train and go to school for and we are expecting parents to pick it up in a very short amount of time. 
  
   For this marginalized group, the big question is what are schools and other resources doing to help? How long will it take and how will this affect my child? Many schools send out worksheets that are not modified for special needs kids. (Nadworny, 2020). Given that their children have needs often overlooked in politics, many families have come to distrust corporations and government. On the other end, they are likely to trust doctors and rely heavily on schools and interest groups for special needs children because those are the people who help them.
  
  They are all just parents who want to see their children happy, healthy, and cared for which makes the group quite cohesive. Their needs are often overlooked but it is time we support all families, not just the poster board ones. 

   

  References

  (1) Dwyer, D. (2020, April 2). The other coronavirus 'front line': At home with special needs children. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/coronavirus-front-line-home-special-children/story?id=69872230

  This is a news source with quotes, interviews, and first-hand accounts of parents of special needs children. The title is comparing these parents to the doctors considered to be on the front line. It claims that the work they do is just as hard. This source is meant to inform and show not only what these parents have to deal with on a daily basis but also how the quarantine is making it even harder. They deserve as much respect/honor as the doctors because their job is just as hard if not more than healthcare professionals. "The shuttering of schools has meant the loss of a dozen or more helpers throughout the day -- a support network that does everything from teaching special needs children how to grip a pencil or zip their coat to social skills and handling full-blown meltdowns." Things that these parents were never trained to do without help that they have now lost.

  (2)Grandin, T. (2002, December). Teaching Tips for Children and Adults with Autism. Retrieved April 12, 2020, from https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/articles/teaching-tips-for-children-and-adults-with-autism.html

  Dr. Grandin is an expert in the fields of animal science and ASD which she has herself. Here she provides a bulleted list of tips for teaching people on the spectrum. These include first-hand experiences that she had growing up and how they helped her. Her main point is "Children with autism need to have a structured day, and teachers who know how to be firm but gentle." She explicitly states that teachers and other helpers are essential to a special needs child’s success both in and out of the classroom. This insight is important because it crafts an image of what the best-case scenario for a special needs child would be. That can then be compared to what resources the children have available during this lockdown..

  (3)Levine, H. (2020, March 31). Parents and Schools Are Struggling to Care for Kids With Special Needs. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/parenting/kids-special-needs-coronavirus.html.

  This is a news and information source with accounts from a parent and a special education teacher. It also gives advice on "How to make your time at home work". It was important to include because this parent doesn't have a child with learning disorders but rather is sight-impaired. It is interesting to see if these parents have the same grievances as the parents of learning disorder kids.

  (4)Mochabo, S. (2020, March 24). Kenya Citizen TV live interview.

  This is a live news program interview with a mother of two special needs children. Not only that but she is the founder of Andy Speaks 4 Special Needs Persons. It is an important source because she knows a lot about the issue outside of her own family. She speaks on problems not associated with academics and gives a perspective of not only a parent but an advocate for special needs people.

  (5)Nadworny, E. (2020, March 27). NPR interview.

  This is an interview where a mother and her 14-year-old special needs son are followed throughout their day as well as talking with teachers about how things look from their end.  This source talks a lot about the academic downsides of schools being closed and how schools aren’t doing enough to help. Special education teachers are doing what they can but without much support from the school, it is hard. Another instructor that teaches at an online school shares tips to teach learning with household chores.