Families of students with special needs face pressure and fear, but online learning is not completely negative

Families of students with special needs face pressure and fear, but online learning is not completely negative

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This story is part of CBC News series Check the pressure on educators and the school system from the pandemic. For this series, CBC News sent a questionnaire to thousands of education professionals to understand how they and their students performed in this extraordinary school year. Nearly 9,500 educators responded.Read more stories in this series Here.


Ashley Gibson-Taylor of Sudbury is relieved that her six-year-old son Kai finally taught a class for students with special needs last fall.

Kai was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Gibson-Taylor said that once he joined the professional class, he quickly made “great progress”, with fewer melts, less pressure, and significant academic achievements.

As a student in Sudbury, Ontario. Gibson-Taylor was sent home in March for fear of a surge in COVID-19 cases.

“My initial thought was that since kindergarten, I have been fighting for this program for him. He finally joined in October, and now we have this obstacle. He finally has a chance, and it has now disappeared.”

Gibson-Taylor stated that the lack of school structure and support at home has had a rapid and obvious impact on schools.

Gibson-Taylor said: “In the first two weeks of his return home, we saw a return period of about one year.”

CBC sent questionnaires to educators across the country. More than 9,000 people responded to this, including 159 people in northeastern Ontario, and dozens of others commented on it.

The responses indicate that many students are struggling with home learning and the pandemic’s education problems. Although there are some bright spots, students with special needs face special challenges. Parents and educators are worried about the future impact.

The attention of educators

In the CBC questionnaire, people who work with young people with special needs were asked about the impact of the school year on students. Most of the 20 special needs educators in Northeast China who answered the question said that they believe that the challenges of this school year will have a psychological impact on some students, and some students will not catch up in academics.

What I did at home was not enough for him.I don’t know what else i can do for him-Parents Ashley Gibson-Taylor (Ashley Gibson-Taylor)

An anonymous respondent wrote that the challenge of working with students with special needs during the pandemic stated that educators “cannot [provide] Students who have the required life skills through the COVID agreement. ”

Another educator wrote: “For students with special needs, online learning is impossible.”

Todd Cunningham, a school and clinical child psychologist at the University of Toronto, said that online learning for students with special needs is not a complete denial. (Todd Cunningham)

School and clinical child psychologist Todd Cunningham (Todd Cunningham) said that for students with special needs, due to their rich experience and needs, online learning is not useless.

Cunningham said: “We have some students who are really concerned about the online environment who have challenges in attention or self-regulation,” he pointed out, with benefits such as “literally turning down the volume in the classroom”.

But Cunningham said that others need “systematic direct guidance” to help them develop skills that they cannot obtain in an online environment.

Worry about skills, self-esteem

Christa Morel of Sudbury says direct guidance is exactly what her four-year-old daughter needs. Raina and her two young siblings were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and overall developmental delay. Morrel said her attempt to get Raina to take online courses was short-lived.

Christy Leuschen and Christa Morel have three children from Grayson, Raina and Liam. They all have There are autism spectrum disorders and global stunting. (Submitted by Christa Morel)

Morrel said: “When my grandmother is on the laptop or her favorite TV show is on it, I can’t even let her pay attention to the laptop.”

While she is trying to maintain Raina’s academic and behavioral skills through daily educational activities, Morel is worried about Raina’s skill level when she returns to the classroom and how to deal with the transition to school.

Lise Orsini of Education Assistant (EA) is concerned about the fares for students with special needs after returning to campus. Since March, Orsini has had to adapt to support students in the Zoom breakout room.

Education assistant Lise Orsini said she is committed to ensuring that students are aware of the additional support. (Submitted by Lise Orsini)

Ossini said she found that some students did well in online learning, while others, especially those with learning disabilities, were “difficult to keep up.”

“I definitely think this will affect their self-esteem and the gap in where they feel they can go.”

“Although online learning” is booming

Sara Kitlar-Pothier of Sudbury has been working this school year to maintain the structure of her seven-year-old son Bohdan on the autism spectrum. At the beginning of the school year, she decided to keep him and his brother Luka at home, mainly because of concerns about interference with the school year and concerns about safety.

Kitlar-Pothier said that she was lucky to spend her day working one-on-one with her children, sitting next to Bohdan and guiding him through online courses. She said, “Despite online learning, he is still thriving.”

Shawn Pothier and Sara Kitlar-Pothier decided to keep their children Bohdan and Luka at home this year, mainly to ensure the stability of Bohdan, a person with autism. (Submitted by Sara Kitlar-Pothier)

She said: “I can work with him as an EA, as a teacher, and give him one-on-one attention.”

“I have the ability to do this, but I know that many parents do not have the ability, and there is nothing wrong with it. Because I am not a teacher, and other parents are not teachers. They did not apply to become EAs, but worked as therapists for their children.”

Gibson-Taylor also instructs his son Kai to take online courses-her husband works during the day and after she finishes the night shift. Although she has seen some progress in recent weeks, including a reduction in the number of melts, bearing the pressure of parents, teachers, and therapists has come at a high price.

“It’s really difficult. Every day I feel that I want to let him lose his parental status, because what I do at home is not enough for him, and I don’t know what else I can do for him.”


This story is part of the CBC News series, which explores the pressure on educators and the school system caused by the pandemic.Read more in this series Here.

Method: How does CBC collect feedback from educators?

CBC has sent the questionnaire to the email addresses of 52,351 school staff in eight different provinces in 200 school districts. The email addresses were crawled from the school website that publicly listed them. The questionnaire was sent using SurveyMonkey.

CBC selects provinces and school districts based on the interest of the regional CBC bureau and the availability of email addresses. Therefore, this questionnaire is not a representative survey of Canadian educators. No question is mandatory, and not all interviewees answered all questions.

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