By Caroline Bunnell
For parents of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities such as Maureen Dumais, COVID-19, and online school had more of an impact on her daughters learning than she ever imagined.
Dumais’ daughter was forced to learn virtually when schools closed during the spring and has only recently returned to in-person learning.
“It can be over stimulating for her. When she has to see a lot of faces on the screen, that increases her anxiety and so once her anxiety increases, she can’t learn,” she said.
Dumais is a parent of one of 149,745 students with disabilities in Massachusetts dealing with online schooling this year.
In her case, Dumais is also a high school science teacher, instructing other parents’ children.
“I can’t imagine if I wasn’t a teacher how difficult it would be to try and help a child with severe special needs,” she said.
“I’m an educator, but I’m not a special educator, I’m not certified in severe special needs, so I was having trouble trying to help her because I wasn’t familiar with the programs,” she said.
Dumais’s daughter Ella, is 8 years old and has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, an intellectual disability, anxiety, and ADHD.
She said that her daughter just went back to in-person learning on October 15, so it has been very difficult for Ella to do online school for that long period of time.
Many schools have allowed students with disabilities to be back in-person.
According to mass.gov, special educators will receive additional training and supplies in order to protect both themselves, and the students.
Carleigh Campana, 18, of Stow, Massachusetts, worked in classrooms with students who have disabilities all throughout high school, and is currently studying special education at James Madison University.
She said that it’s really important to have special needs students in a physical classroom because they need routine and personalized assistance.
“Most of the students thrive off of routine and structure and being at home all day does not give them that,” she said.
Julie Fay, a special education teacher at Nashoba Regional High School, agreed with Campana and described what the school is doing for learning this school year.
“Luckily, we are back in person now, with our students being the only ones in the building. Many of the students are immunocompromised, so protecting their health is very important to us,” she said.
“However, it is nice to be back in the building, to give these kids some sense of normalcy,” she said.
According to the Marcus Autism Center, even at home, parents of kids with special needs should be implementing routine as much as possible.
“All children learn best from repetition, and children with autism spectrum disorder, especially appreciate predictability and patterns,” the Marcus Autism Center reports.
According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, schools are required to uphold the education plans described in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP).
“A regular and consistent schedule of classes, interventions, services, and therapies required by the student’s IEP, offered synchronously and/or asynchronously,” the DESE notes.
Schools have been working hard to accommodate students with all types of disabilities and personalizing different plans for each individual.
According to Edutopia, a website educating people about how to educate every type of learner, it is important that teachers understand how difficult it is to achieve the same goals, that students would reach if they were in person.
Dumais understands the need for routine, but also acknowledged the need for adaptation, because she knows her daughter could not truly focus for the amount of time allotted for learning, every day.
“A lot of times I found myself just saying, let’s just go read a book, or let’s practice coloring, something to get her off the computer, because she was getting frustrated,” she said.
Special Education teacher, Julie Fay, emphasized Dumais’ point and said that students with disabilities can’t be expected to learn the same way they would if they were physically at school.
Fay said that although routine is important in a normal circumstance of learning, schools need to change their expectations for special education students, at this time.
College student, Carleigh Campana, described how new COVID-19 restrictions can also make in-person learning more difficult.
“For in-person, that’s really hard with social distancing, and masks. The masks I know are tough for a lot of individuals with disabilities, especially with autism because of the sensory aspect,” she said.
“A lot of students are still learning boundaries and personal space in general from their peers and teachers, so keeping that six feet distance has to be really hard,” she said.
Dumais said that she has been lucky because her daughter is doing well wearing a mask but has found social distancing much harder.
She said this has set Ella back in her understanding of social skills, because she missed such a larger amount of time of in person instruction.
Campana said that she spent a majority of time working specifically on social skills with the students, which is one of the most significant things students were missing out on, while doing online learning.
“The main focus of a special education program is functioning in society, and being as independent as you can, so that includes social skills. That includes things as simple as not hugging a stranger, or how to take turns, simple things like that which you really can’t get if you are stuck in your house,” she said.
Dumais was grateful her daughter was allowed to return to in person learning, because she knows how much more beneficial it will be in the long run.
“Allowing her to have the direct one on one time, with her providers sitting right next to her, able to redirect her is so much more beneficial to her learning. She needs a lot of redirection, a lot of movement breaks, and she can’t attend that long to a screen,” she said.
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