Experiences of the Mothers to Cope with the Problem Behaviors of the Children with Special Needs during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Process

Abstract

Experiences of the mothers to cope with the problem behaviors of the children with special needs during coronavirus (COVID-19) process.

Parents' Views of the Effect of Covid-19 on Individuals Wi̇th Special Needs: The Case of Turkey

“…Especially individuals with severe disabilities were able to benefit less from the support provided at home. A similar study conducted in Turkey (Karahan et al, 2021) examined mothers' experiences concerning their children with special needs and findings were obtained that support the results of the present study. In the aforementioned study mothers asserted that the fact their children were away from school and their peers led to some problems and that they failed to make pedagogic and material adaptations and encountered drawbacks in preparing or designing Haziran 2023 Cilt 25 Sayı 1 (97-120) equipment for their children.…”

“…Moreover, the finding that isolated life at home increased the duration of watching TV and using mobile devices (Chen et al, 2020;Karahan et al, 2021) supports the view that the screen exposure time increased, which is one of the effects of Covid-19 on social life. Especially mothers indicated that in the pandemic process their children lost the routines and social environment that they used to have in the pre-COVID-19 period and that they have difficulty in dealing with children's problem behaviors that emerge as a result of the increase in the duration of staying indoors and that they feel lonely (Karahan et al, 2021).…”

“…Since the beginning of the pandemic, families of individuals with ASD experience difficulties in rearranging and managing daily life, and 1 out of every 3 individuals shows more severe behavioral problems (Colizzi et al, 2020) and/or the severity of their behavioral problems increases (Stankovic et al, 2020). Moreover, the finding that isolated life at home increased the duration of watching TV and using mobile devices (Chen et al, 2020;Karahan et al, 2021) supports the view that the screen exposure time increased, which is one of the effects of Covid-19 on social life. Especially mothers indicated that in the pandemic process their children lost the routines and social environment that they used to have in the pre-COVID-19 period and that they have difficulty in dealing with children's problem behaviors that emerge as a result of the increase in the duration of staying indoors and that they feel lonely (Karahan et al, 2021).…”

“…It is known that individuals with special needs can have problem behaviors such as aggression directed outwardly, self-harm, agitation, sleep disorders (Ageranioti-Bélanger, et al, 2012;Summers, et al, 2017;Matson et al, 2008;Park et al, 2014;Smith & Matson, 2010); in addition, they may experience deficiencies in various levels of anxiety disorder (Van Steensel et al, 2011), emotion regulation problems (Fiona & Indianti, 2018) and communication skills (Boardman et al, 2014). Harming themselves and others and increase in destructive behaviors of individuals with special needs during the pandemic period were stated as the most challenging behavioral problems (Asbury et al, 2020;Karahan et al, 2021). In particular, the problem behaviors of children with ASD doubled compared to the pre-pandemic, and while there was an increase in the severity of behaviors (Colizzi et al, 2020), there was also a decline in prosocial behaviors (Nonweiler et al, 2020).…”

The experiences of parents with children receiving inclusive education during the Covid-19 pandemic and the distance education process

“…When the literature on this field is considered, it can be seen that there is an emphasis on the fact that emergency online education has negative effects on inclusive students. According to the results of the interviews with the parents of inclusive students, it was found that the psycho-social problems of the students increased, there were problems related to technological infrastructure and technology use and that this situation caused injustice in education (Başaran, Doğan, Karaoğlu & Şahin, 2020;Karahan, Yıldırım, Demiröz, Kaya & Kayhan, 2021). Furthermore, when the related studies were examined, it was found that there have not been enough applications in terms of inclusive education; necessary materials for students have not been available; the individualized education plans could not been adapted to online education and not enough attention has been paid to training the parents (Karasel-Ayda, Bastas, Altinay, Altinay &Dagli, 2020; Greenway & Eaton-Thomas, 2020).…”