The association between home learning during COVID‐19 lockdowns and subsequent school attendance among children with neurodevelopmental conditions

Kouroupa, Athanasia; Allard, Amanda; Gray, Kylie Megan; Hastings, Richard P.; Heyne, David; Melvin, Glenn; Tonge, Bruce John; Totsika, Vasiliki

doi:10.1111/cch.13113

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…chronic, persistent, continuous, or frequent). The most common definition was 10% of school time, which was used in seven studies ( K. P. Anderson, 2021 ; Hatton, 2018 ; Jarbou et al, 2022 ; John et al, 2022 ; Kouroupa et al, 2023 ; Mattson et al, 2022 ; Totsika et al, 2020 ). Other definitions included 30 days/year, 4 weeks/year, 3 days/20 days, more than 1 week, or 11 days.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The parents stressed the importance of a partnership between home and school, to address the problem early, and to stop using the term school refusal. One study found that a reason for selecting elective home education was to avoid exclusion from school ( Paulauskaite et al, 2022 ), while one study ( Kouroupa et al, 2023 ) reported that school attendance problems increased during school closure in a group of children with autism and/or intellectual disability.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

School absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents: A scoping review

Nordin,

Palmgren,

Lindbladh

et al. 2023

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

School absenteeism is a major societal problem, with a range of potential adverse long-term consequences. This scoping review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the research on school absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents, expose important gaps in the literature, and explore possibilities for future systematic reviews. Five relevant databases were searched systematically from inception to June 2023, yielding a total of 46 eligible reports from 42 separate studies. All studies were conducted in high-income countries, and most were published in the last decade. Three major themes emerged: occurrence, contextual factors, and interventions. The results of large-scale population-based studies clearly suggested that autistic children and adolescents were absent from school more often than their non-autistic peers, which partly was attributable to co-occurring conditions. Bullying also emerged as a potential risk factor. Only a few preliminary studies were available on targeted interventions, emphasizing the need for more robust studies. More research is also needed on the mechanisms leading to and maintaining school absenteeism in this group of learners. Overall, the diversity of research questions, methods, and definitions used in this body of research suggests that systematic reviews with narrow focus on a few key questions may still be premature. Lay abstract Autistic children and teenagers are, on average, absent from school more than their peers. The aim of this review was to provide an overview of the research on absence from school in autistic learners in primary and secondary school, to help guide future research. We sifted through 4632 reports and found 42 studies with a focus on school absence and autism. We looked at how, when, and where the studies were conducted. We also summarized the results and outlined how absence was measured in the studies. Absence from school may lead to problems later in life, like incomplete education and unemployment. It is therefore important to know how common this problem is among autistic learners, what the reasons may be, and what type of support they need. The studies were from high-income countries and were mainly published in the last 10 years. Studies based on school registers from the United States and the United Kingdom clearly showed that children and teenagers with autism had higher risk of school absence than those without autism. Absence was often linked to problems with mental health or additional neurodevelopmental conditions. Several studies also showed that absence in autistic children and adolescents was related to problems in school, like bullying or lack of knowledge about autism. Support programs were only evaluated in a few studies with a small number of study participants. We conclude that more research is needed to better understand why autistic learners are absent and what they need to thrive in school.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

School absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents: A scoping review

Nordin,

Palmgren,

Lindbladh

et al. 2023

Autism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Impact of COVID‐19 lockdown in England on challenging behaviour and adaptive skills for children in a special school: A longitudinal study

Nicholls,

Thompson,

Grindle

et al. 2024

British Educational Res J

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Longitudinal research is crucial to fully assess the putative impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on children with an intellectual disability in special school settings—ideally drawing on data pre‐pandemic to be able to evaluate later impact. Data on challenging behaviour and adaptive skills were collected annually for 348 students in one special school across four time points pre‐pandemic and one time point post‐pandemic. Data were analysed using multilevel models with repeated observations over the five time points. There was a decrease in aggressive and destructive behaviours and a decrease in adaptive skills at the post‐pandemic time point, after accounting for other important covariates. There was no evidence of a change in stereotyped or self‐injurious challenging behaviours. Other research using longitudinal methods is rare, but the current findings are consistent with previous research reporting on the impact of COVID‐19 on children and young people, particularly from parent reports. Future considerations for schools include adopting appropriate strategies to support learners to reintegrate back into education. Further research is needed to look at the longer‐term impact of the pandemic on challenging behaviour in children with an intellectual disability.

show abstract

Sociodemographic trends in special educational needs identification in Wales

Knight,

Lowthian,

Crick

et al. 2024

British Educational Res J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the context of an emerging new additional learning needs (ALN) system in Wales, this research explores who was likely to be identified with special educational needs (SEN) under the previous system. Our study reveals analysis of linked Welsh education and health data on SEN identification in learners in mainstream education settings born between 2002/3 and 2008/9. Using longitudinal multilevel modelling, we explore (i) who is likely identified with SEN and (ii) whether there is evidence of social patterning in SEN identification. We find that 48% of those born in the year 2002/3 were identified with SEN at some point during their schooling years. Furthermore, when controlling for health‐related variables, those who are identified with SEN in Wales were more likely to be male, White, from a deprived background, with lower school attendance, had not experienced breastfeeding and were born later in the academic year. Taken together, the research findings suggest that SEN identification was influenced by a child's context. The study thus underscores the critical importance of examining the relationship between socioeconomic, environmental and biological factors in SEN identification, urging for a comprehensive and cross‐organisation approach to enhance outcomes for learners with diverse needs. It also highlights the need for follow‐up research to explore unfolding trends as the new ALN system in Wales becomes fully implemented and integrated over the coming years.

show abstract

The association between home learning during COVID‐19 lockdowns and subsequent school attendance among children with neurodevelopmental conditions

Cited by 7 publications

References 12 publications

School absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents: A scoping review

School absenteeism in autistic children and adolescents: A scoping review

Impact of COVID‐19 lockdown in England on challenging behaviour and adaptive skills for children in a special school: A longitudinal study

Sociodemographic trends in special educational needs identification in Wales

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About