Latina Mothers of Young Children With Special Needs: Personal Narratives Capturing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Latino community has been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in unique challenges. This paper explores the lived experiences of five Spanish-speaking Latina mothers of young children receiving early childhood special education (ECSE) services during the pandemic. Through in-depth qualitative interviews, this paper focuses on the following research questions: (1) What barriers have Spanish-speaking Latino families encountered in ECSE service delivery during this pandemic? (2) How have families overcome those barriers? Latina mothers describe how despite encountering numerous barriers to ECSE service delivery during the pandemic, they also experienced key areas of support and strength. We discuss how ECSE professionals can leverage these sources of support and strength in a culturally responsive manner to better support the Latino community through the pandemic. By presenting interviews with Latina mothers, this paper offers a unique interpretation of their experience which is often left out of educational research.

Families’ Experiences With Online Instruction and Behavior Support During COVID-19

“…Similar to our findings, recent literature on the impacts of COVID-19 school closures demonstrates home-based implementation of young children’s instruction and behavior support heavily relied on families, leading to increased opportunity gaps for children whose family members did not have the capacity to serve as their children’s primary educator (e.g., Steed & Leech, 2021). In the future, educators can take measured steps to narrow opportunity gaps for children with disabilities and challenging behavior by increasing effective family-school communication and culturally responsive, family-capacity building strategies (Garbe et al, 2020; Luna et al, 2023). Educators can prepare for online learning by meeting with family members to gather information about their priorities for their young children’s behaviors and learning.…”

“…For example, educators relied on technology to communicate with families (Tarrant & Nagasawa, 2020), set up online classes through synchronous Zoom meetings or asynchronous videos (Steed & Leech, 2021; Szente, 2020), and/or delivered learning materials to families’ homes (Dayal & Tiko, 2020). These strategies, however, relied on family members or caregivers to significantly support or directly implement children’s learning at home, placing a burden on families who were already likely experiencing other COVID-19 stressors (Luna et al, 2023).…”

The Familismo Coaching Model: A Values-Based Coaching Framework for Latino Caregivers

“…Practitioners should ensure that all families who require interpretation services are able to access it, especially interpreters who are familiar with the specific jargon and EI field. Furthermore, Latino families have reported on the gratitude they feel when providers make attempts to learn about their culture (e.g., learning words in Spanish) and incorporating those into services (Luna et al, 2023). Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of any professional in the field to learn about and incorporate cultural components into their coaching work.…”