Life under lockdown for children with autism spectrum disorder: Insights from families in South Africa

Adams, Skye Nandi; Seedat, Jaishika; Neille, Joanne

doi:10.1111/cch.12996

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…The authors concluded that the long-term lockdown restrictions meant that parents had more time for family activities. A similar finding was also reported in a small South African study, where increased interactions and emotional attachment with siblings had a positive effect on children with ASD [36].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Caregiver Perspective on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Psychosocial and Behavioral Health of Children with ASD in the United States: A Questionnaire-Based Survey

Schwartz

Sachdev

Hewitson

2022

COVID

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Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were particularly vulnerable to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study we conducted an anonymous caregiver survey to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial and behavioral health of children with ASD. Data from 700 responses identified several significant factors predicting greater difficulties for the child including pre-existing behavioral challenges (OR = 5.179; 95% CI: 2.696, 9.951), disrupted sleep (OR = 2.618; 95% CI 1.341, 5.112), and a diagnosis of depression (OR = 3.425; 95% CI: 1.1621, 4.116). Greater difficulties for caregivers in managing their child’s behaviors were associated with sleep disturbances (OR = 1.926; 95% CI: 1.170, 3.170), self-injurious behavior (OR = 3.587; 95% CI: 1.767, 7.281), and managing the child’s school activities (OR = 3.107; 95% CI: 1.732, 5.257) and free time (OR = 3.758; 95% CI: 2.217, 6.369). However, being under the care of a neuropsychiatrist was associated with less difficulty in managing the child’s behaviors (OR = 2.516; 95% CI: −1.046, −5.382). Finally, the presence of comorbidities (OR = 2.599; 95% CI: 1.053, 4.067) and a greater difficulty in managing the child’s school activities (OR = 2.531; 95% CI: 1.655, 3.868) and free time (OR = 1.651; 95% CI: 1.101, 2.478) were associated with an increased likelihood of caregiver desire for their child to return to in-person school in the fall. The COVID-19 pandemic had a wide-ranging impact on the behaviors of children with ASD and challenges for their caregivers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Caregiver Perspective on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Psychosocial and Behavioral Health of Children with ASD in the United States: A Questionnaire-Based Survey

Schwartz

Sachdev

Hewitson

2022

COVID

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“…Our approach highlights the utility of leveraging brief, naturalistic home-based approaches, which minimize demands on families. This point is salient in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which precipitated a new “normal” centered on virtual encounters, with some parents preferring online assessments or services for pediatrician visits 73 or parenting support 74 , 75 . Indeed, an important takeaway from this study is the high rate of acceptability from parents for uploading recorded samples of interactions between themselves and their children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Childhood conduct problems and parent–child talk during social and nonsocial play contexts: a naturalistic home-based experiment

Sun,

Plate,

Jones

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Parent–child interactions are a critical pathway to emotion socialization, with disruption to these processes associated with risk for childhood behavior problems. Using computational linguistics methods, we tested whether (1) play context influenced parent–child socioemotional language, and (2) child conduct problems or callous-unemotional traits were associated with patterns of socioemotional or nonsocial language across contexts. Seventy-nine parent–child dyads (children, 5–6 years old) played a socioemotional skills (“social context”) or math (“nonsocial context”) game at home. We transcribed and analyzed game play, which had been audio recorded by participants. The social context elicited more socioemotional and cognitive words, while the nonsocial context elicited more mathematical words. The use of socioemotional language by parents and children was more strongly correlated in the social context, but context did not moderate the degree of correlation in cognitive or mathematical word use between parents and children. Children with more conduct problems used fewer socioemotional words in the social context, while children with higher callous-unemotional traits used fewer cognitive words in both contexts. We highlight the role of context in supporting socioemotionally rich parent–child language interactions and provide preliminary evidence for the existence of linguistic markers of child behavior problems. Our results also inform naturalistic assessments of parent–child interactions and home-based interventions for parents and children facing socioemotional or behavioral challenges.

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“…A common feature of children with ASD is a strict follow up with their schedule, and disruption of their routines can cause them significant distress [ 46 ]. Due to this, individuals with ASD are particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic [ 10 , 47 , 48 ]. Adapting to new daily routines, environmental changes, and uncertainty related to the pandemic have been determined to be causing distress in children with ASD, worsening both the core features of ASD and their overall mental health [ 49 , 50 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficacy of coping mechanisms used during COVID-19 as reported by parents of children with autism

et al. 2023

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The COVID-19 pandemic’s alterations to daily life have been especially challenging for families with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), worsening the core features of ASD and overall mental health. With the increased need for effective coping, the current retrospective study used data from a survey regarding parent reports of how often their child with ASD used certain coping strategies (frequency), as well as the extent to which they felt their child benefitted from their use (efficacy) in mitigating stress during the pandemic. This retrospective study Repeated measures ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate whether there were significant differences in both frequency and efficacy ratings for each coping strategy, for the entire sample as well as for three children’s age groups. Using Spearman’s rank-order correlations, correlation coefficients between the frequency and efficacy of each coping strategy were explored. Results revealed that maladaptive strategies were used more frequently than adaptive strategies, while parent routine as the most frequently used and efficacious for all age groups. Additionally, for adaptive strategies, humor and focusing on the positive had the strongest correlations between frequency and efficacy ratings amongst all age groups. Of the maladaptive strategies, repetitive behaviors, rumination, and isolation had the strongest correlations for the youngest, middle, and oldest age groups, respectively. Further, for each age group, the adaptive coping strategies had stronger correlations between frequency and efficacy than the maladaptive ones. It is our hope that the results of this study will lay the foundation for developing adaptive coping strategies to alleviate stress in children with ASD. Further investigations using a larger cohort are warranted to determine effective coping strategies for individuals with ASD across a range of situations, including acute stressors (such as future public health emergencies and natural disasters), as well as common daily stressors.

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Life under lockdown for children with autism spectrum disorder: Insights from families in South Africa

Cited by 10 publications

References 33 publications

Caregiver Perspective on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Psychosocial and Behavioral Health of Children with ASD in the United States: A Questionnaire-Based Survey

Caregiver Perspective on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Psychosocial and Behavioral Health of Children with ASD in the United States: A Questionnaire-Based Survey

Childhood conduct problems and parent–child talk during social and nonsocial play contexts: a naturalistic home-based experiment

Efficacy of coping mechanisms used during COVID-19 as reported by parents of children with autism

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