A Qualitative Study on the Impact of Covid-19 on Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Families’ Coping Strategies and Beliefs about Online Education

Abstract

For a more in-depth understanding, we have conducted a qualitative study to understand the extent of the impact of the early stage of the pandemic on children with ASD. The findings in this study were obtained from two groups of participants. The first one included 92 parents or caregivers of children with ASD from six cities in Turkey. The participants in this group reported 159 negative behavior changes in 28 different behavior types. We also selected 32 parents, some of them from the first group, to investigate their coping strategies, use of online education, and expectations from institutions and organizations. Whereas most families report increased anxiety and stress, aggressive, obsessive and repetitive behavior, violence towards self and others, a significant number of families declared improvement in speech, social communication, academic skills, and eye contact. The participants also stated that online special education is dysfunctional and inefficient for some groups, depending on age and the severity of ASD.