Impact of Social Distancing on Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Abstract
COVID-19 has severely affected educational services, bringing changes in the routine of thousands of parents worldwide. The present study mapped the impact of social distancing on the interventions of parents of children with ASD. Five hundred and fifty-three caregivers (98.7% mothers) of children with ASD responded to an online questionnaire about therapeutic interventions and formal support before and after the beginning of the pandemic. The results showed that the pandemic produced important differences in the frequency of supervisions received per week, in the amount of interventions conducted at home, and in the hours dedicated to the study of ASD. There was also reports of increased time spent with the children, but perhaps because parents seldom received prior training, this did not translate into an increase in well-planned interventions, guided by systematic professional supervision. Remote parental training on ABA principles is discussed as a promising future possibility.
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