A Family’s Experience in Bridging the Learning Gap for Special Needs Students
The distance learning approach has been in effect since the 2020 school year began. At the start of every week, weekly packages are picked up, completed by students, and then submitted by the end of the week, while others engage in online classes. But what about students with special needs? News Five’s Duane Moody visited with the Stephen family, whose youngest member is autistic, to find out what the experience has been like and how they’re coping.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Meet Eric Stephen – he’s celebrating his seventh birthday today with his family at their home in the West Lake Community in Western Paradise Village. But he is autistic – diagnosed about two years ago at level three on the autism spectrum, which is the more severe level of autism. And keeping him and his siblings engaged during these COVID times has been a challenge.
Jocelle Stephen
Jocelle Stephen, Mother of Eric Stephen
“It’s been extremely, extremely challenging. It’s quite a task of teaching because the reality is that we are now teaching our children. The curriculum that’s set forth at the beginning of the year is rigid especially for my children who are in private school. And there is a level of expectation in terms of their performance, in terms of their level of learning. So it’s been a real challenge when you have to have that mix of a balance of your work, rearing your kids in terms of their usual social interactions, their education as well as the work that you have to do at your home.”
Eric is the youngest of three children; he has a nine-year-old brother and an eleven-year-old sister. While his older siblings remain occupied with distance learning packages as they try not to lag behind in their educational development, Eric’s process is different. Jocelle Stephen says that through a lot of research and support from Autism Belize, she and her husband have put in place tools to help along the way.
Jocelle Stephen
“It’s a challenge – even without COVID, it is a challenge raising a child with autism, but at the same time, it is extremely rewarding because Eric is such a sweetheart when you get to know him. When you see that personality comes out, he is one of the most mischievous children. But autism affects their ability to communicate; it is a developmental disability, but it affects their ability to interact socially, it affects their ability to communicate. Some are non-verbal, some may have difficulties in just expressing themselves and then there is also repetitive behaviour. With all the changes that COVID-19 has brought us, the fact that he is no longer in a classroom setting has been an adjustment in his normal routine. So that throws him off completely. Whenever that happens, there is what you call behavioural issues. You can hear him screaming just now in the background. Behaviour could end up being where he is hurting himself whether by biting or hitting, or he will hit others. So us, his siblings, the babysitter. So it has been a challenge as to how do we help him to adjust to this not normal situation.”
Eric is a student at Stella Maris Primary School, which the family says has been very hands-on with their son’s learning curve. Eric also gets his weekly packages and would do sign language, letters, numbers, and colouring.
Jocelle Stephen
“Sometimes our schedule changes on a whim and so we are not able to prepare him. Sometimes we use what we call social stories. So we would use our little cards that we have and we would form a story. We would create the list of we are leaving home, we are going into the car, so you will have a picture of the car, a shopping cart for the supermarket and we will have to show him what the day looks like. Speech therapy is a very important tool for him and unfortunately it is not always readily available here – there is a cost attached to it – but one of the support groups I am in had shown me a link where they were giving free speech therapy. So for the last six months, he was in a speech therapy course where every Monday, we would have a virtual training with a speech therapist. Stella Maris so far has really worked wonders for us. His teacher, teacher Forman has been an inspiration for us. She is one teacher, I can say has a passion for children and goes above and beyond.”
Jocelle says they have incorporated weekly scheduled fun activities for the entire family, such as movie night on Fridays and games night on Saturdays, which helps cope with the stresses associated with COVID-19 and the restrictions in place. Duane Moody for News Five.
