Impacto de la COVID-19 en niños con trastorno del espectro autista

Abstract

Introduction. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience changing routines as a major challenge. For that reason, the need for adaptation during COVID-19 pandemic may have brought major problems to families with children with this pathology. Aim. To explore how children with ASD and their parents experienced the social isolation during COVID-19 outbreak period. Subjects and methods. We conducted an observational, cross-sectional and analytical study. We applied an anonymous questionnaire that included children's demographic and clinical characteristics, along with the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in different aspects of family's daily life. Results. Out of 99 questionnaires obtained, 43 were related to children with ASD and 56 to control group. Children with ASD predominantly had changes in behavior, while children from control group mostly found no changes. The majority of parents of ASD children reported a negative impact in emotion management against those in control group reporting mostly positive or no impact. Caregivers reported higher mean scores of anxiety levels in themselves than in their children. ASD children and their parents had higher levels of anxiety than healthy ones. In the group with ASD, children that did not maintain routines had higher mean levels of anxiety than children that maintained routines. Conclusion. Our results show a potential important psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic not only in children with neurodevelopmental disorders but in their caregivers as well. Physicians must be prepared for the post-pandemic surveillance of mental disorders among families.

Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on the Emotional and Behavioral Profiles of Preschool Italian Children with and without Familial Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders

“…Despite these differences, which were most penalizing the HR-NDD group, the two groups showed no differences in terms of COVID-19 impact on their emotional and behavioral profiles: effects were not more pronounced on HR-NDD children compared to TD children. This result was contrary to our expectations based on previous studies conducted on children with full-blown diagnosis of NDD [27,32,33,50]. In order to interpret this apparently contrasting finding, it is important to keep in mind that only a restricted proportion of HR-NDD children in our sample had already received a clinical diagnosis (i.e., n = 6 in total, 4 children diagnosed with ASD and 2 children with DLD, respectively, corresponding to 14% of the total HR-NDD group) and were receiving a therapy that was suddenly interrupted and/or switched online.…”

“…In order to interpret this apparently contrasting finding, it is important to keep in mind that only a restricted proportion of HR-NDD children in our sample had already received a clinical diagnosis (i.e., n = 6 in total, 4 children diagnosed with ASD and 2 children with DLD, respectively, corresponding to 14% of the total HR-NDD group) and were receiving a therapy that was suddenly interrupted and/or switched online. It could be hypothesized that discontinuation of face-to-face therapies may be one of the main reasons for the greater vulnerability of children with NDD to emotional and behavioral difficulties during the COVID-19 emergency reported by previous studies [27,32,33,50]. Bentenuto et al [33] have shown that the increase in externalizing behavior in children with NDD was indeed related to a decrease in provided therapies.…”

“…Our hypothesis of a greater vulnerability of children at familial risk for NDD was driven by existing studies reporting or expecting a higher negative impact on children with a full-blown diagnosis of NDD [27,33,50] compared to TD children. Contrary to our expectations, the negative effects of COVID-19 lockdown on children's emotional behavioral profiles were not more pronounced for HR-NDD children compared to TD children.…”

Autistic Spectrum Disorder in the Context of Pandemic by Covid-19: Caring for Children and Caregivers

“…So you can imagine that staying at home during quarantine, away from these challenges, can comfort these children. However, in that period, these children had to live with a great stressor for them: the change of routines [30]. For parents with children/young people with ASD, quarantine means not only serving as their child's teacher, but also serving as a special educator, social skills trainer, speech therapist or behavioral/mental therapist, sometimes with little support from professionals [31].…”

Análisis multimedia del impacto del confinamiento por COVID-19 en menores con autismo

“…Finalmente, Amorim et al (2020) han estudiado el impacto del COVID-19 en niños con TEA. Los resultados muestran que tuvieron un impacto negativo en el manejo de las emociones frente a los niños del grupo de control.…”