COVID-19 remote learning experiences of youth with neurodevelopmental disorders in rural Appalachia.

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a major educational shift took place-the transition from face-to-face instruction to remote learning. Although this transition impacted all learners, it is speculated that groups of vulnerable youth (i.e., those with neurodevelopmental disorders, in rural areas, from low-income families) would demonstrate significant difficulties with remote instruction. However, no work to date has investigated remote learning in these groups in rural settings. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to characterize remote learning experiences in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders from rural Appalachia. Forty-nine youth (aged 6-17 years) and caregivers who had previously completed a comprehensive psychoeducational assessment were contacted to participate in an online study during COVID-19 stay-athome orders. Youth and caregivers reported on psychopathology, emotion regulation and coping strategies, remote learning experiences, and demographics. A majority (87%) of students in rural Appalachia were not receiving the recommended amount of direct remote instruction. Indeed, a majority of school services received pre-COVID were not continued during remote learning. Greater child emotion dysregulation and parent psychopathology were predictive of remote learning difficulties and less engagement. Youth's adaptive coping abilities were predictive of greater total schoolwork per day. Parent employment was associated with greater difficulty with remote learning, but Individualized Education Program (IEP)/504 status and family income were not related to remote learning experiences. Results identified intervention leverage points, including improving adaptive coping and emotion regulation abilities, and reducing parent psychopathology and stress, to improve remote learning outcomes for youth in rural settings with neurodevelopmental disorders. Public Health Significance StatementThe transition from face-to-face instruction to remote learning during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders significantly impacted all students and likely impacted vulnerable youth at a disproportionate rate. Students with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and learning disorders) in rural Appalachia were receiving less than the recommended amount of direct instruction and few of their pre-COVID school services (e.g., therapy, tutoring, and test accommodations). Improving emotion regulation and adaptive coping strategies in youth and decreasing parental psychopathology symptoms (i.e., anxiety and depression) and stress could improve student remote learning outcomes.

Coping with COVID-19: Longitudinal Impact of the Pandemic on Adjustment and Links with Coping for Adolescents with and without ADHD

“…To date only one study has examined the role of routines in the outcomes of adolescents with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic; specifically, Becker and colleagues (2020) linked fewer routines to more remote learning difficulties. Similarly, only two studies have examined coping/ emotion regulation behaviors among youth with ADHD during the COVID-19 pandemic (Breaux et al, 2021a;McFayden et al, 2021). None of these prior studies simultaneously examined coping and routines as predictors of adjustment during the pandemic, and none examined specific coping behaviors (i.e.…”

“…Given research on active coping strategies buffering against COVID-19 related stress (Ren et al, 2021;Tang et al, 2021), we hypothesized that adolescents who engage in more coping behaviors will experience fewer mental health symptoms, less substance use, less COVID-related stress, and less worry about the pandemic. Further, based on findings that adolescents with ADHD and poorer emotional regulation abilities display the highest symptomatology throughout the pandemic (Breaux et al, 2021a;McFayden et al, 2021), we hypothesized the association between coping behaviors and adjustment would be most pronounced for youth with ADHD. Finally, as an exploratory aim, we examined multi-group analyses examining each domain of coping behavior (i.e.…”

Associations Between Anxiety and Home Learning Difficulties in Children and Adolescents with ADHD During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…During the pandemic, children in Australia, and in many countries around the world, were required by the government to swiftly transition to learning remotely from home (henceforth ‘home learning’) unless they had an approved exemption, such as a parent working in essential healthcare. While it is likely all children have faced challenges related to this rapid and unexpected shift [ 2 ], this transition may have been particularly challenging for children with ADHD, with the in-person learning difficulties experienced by this population likely to extend to home learning [ 13 ], given challenges related to their environment and supports, transitions, and regulation. Whilst a body of emerging research is exploring the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in children with ADHD [ 14 – 17 ], less research has focused on home learning specifically.…”

“…The small body of existing research on home learning experiences in children with ADHD suggests that children with ADHD and their families have experienced greater home learning difficulties (HLD) compared to children without ADHD during the pandemic [ 2 , 13 ]. One study of home learning experiences in adolescents with and without ADHD ( N = 238; ages 15–17) indicated that almost a quarter of the sample were reported to have not engaged in any home learning during the survey period.…”

“…Of the adolescents who had engaged in home learning, almost three-quarters spent an average of three or fewer total hours of schoolwork on school days; below the recommended quantity to learn new material and reinforce material learnt previously (3–4 h of learning activities for grades 7–12 students in United States guidance) [ 18 ], which may be especially important for students with learning challenges [ 13 ]. A study of children with neurodevelopmental disorders ( N = 49; ages 6–17 years) and caregivers in rural United States showed that most were not receiving the recommended quantity of direct online instruction; and that the majority of support services (e.g., school counselling, speech therapy) had been discontinued during home learning [ 2 ].…”