Exploring the consequences of Covid-19 pandemic on behavior and learning of children with special needs

Abstract

During global crisis, children with special needs are in real bind. COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental for the children with special needs (CSNs) due to closure of education and therapies, social isolation, unstructured routine and economic deprivation of families which led them to multiple forms of exclusion linked to their basic rights. The purpose of this quantitative research was to explore the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic on CSNs in terms of behavior and learning. 40 mothers with special needs children aged 3 to 8 years participated in this study with a self-rated questionnaire, indicating that majority of the special need children had unawareness about COVID-19 and failed to practice the preventive measures. Findings also discovered that most of the CSNs had inaccessibility to education and therapies which hampered their learning excessively. In addition, incapability to daily living skills, behavioral implications like hyperactivity, aggressiveness, sleep disturbances and changed appetite magnified the risk for CSNs. Additionally, findings highlighted increased negative parental behavior, child abuse and unavailability of essential goods such as medicines prescribed by physicians due to pandemic on CSNs. Therefore, this findings emphasis on further studies, capacity development and policy reforms to ensure the service and mitigate the learning loss of CSNs.