作者
Sudha M Srinivasan, Wan-Chun Su, Corina Cleffi, Anjana N Bhat
发表日期
2021/7/1
期刊
Frontiers in Psychiatry
卷号
12
页码范围
700247
出版商
Frontiers Media SA
简介
The COVID-19 pandemic and efforts directed toward containing virus spread have led to significant disruptions to children’s lives worldwide due to school closures, lockdowns, quarantines, reduced access to healthcare services, limited socialization, and significant reduction in opportunities to engage in physical activity (1, 2). The effects of the pandemic are more severe in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)(3–5). For families of children with ASD, the pandemic presents a host of challenges including,(1) reduced/modified virtual access to educational and healthcare services (Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), occupational therapy (OT), social skills training, speech language therapy (SLT), etc.) required to manage children’s complex symptoms/comorbidities,(2) disruptions in structured routines, stay-at-home orders, and the unpredictability of the pandemic coupled with a lack of understanding of the world-wide crisis, leading to an aggravation of children’s behavioral symptoms and increase in anxiety/distress,(3) difficulties complying with pandemic mitigation efforts of social distancing, limited outdoor activities, hand washing, mask wearing, etc. due to ASD-related cognitive, social, and sensory impairments, and (4) increased parental stress due to concerns for family’s health, juggling multiple home-, work-, and caregiving/homeschoolingrelated responsibilities, as well as due to the economic, social, and psychological effects of the pandemic (6–9). Overall, the confluence of multiple pandemic-related stressors places significant strain on the family unit of children with ASD and …
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