Rhesa Durgin shares what she has been experiencing while trying to work from home and make sure her daughter completes her school work during the Lewis County Autism Coalition Zoom discussion.
The COVID-19 outbreak has presented the world, state, and Lewis County community with many challenges, including disrupted routines and social lives — which can be particularly difficult for individuals on the autism spectrum, said Bill Wiesman, facilitator for the Lewis County Autism Coalition.
The Lewis County Autism Coalition has been conducting virtual discussions via Zoom during COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings. The most recent topic was “education while sheltering in place,” which discussed the challenges of this new way of life brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak for autistic adults as well as for parents trying to work and homeschool their autistic child.
For a child on the autism spectrum, school is not the only place where learning has been disrupted — occupational, behavioral or speech therapy has been interrupted as well. Shawna Haller, a parent of an autistic child, voiced concern of her child regressing in the progress she made before the quarantine.
“I think that one of the biggest concerns for parents at this time is regression. I think that the bigger concern is that you can’t get your kid to do what they were doing at school,” she said. “I told the special ed teacher that right now I’m not focusing on teaching her more, I’m just trying to keep her where she’s at.”
Haller said her daughter is enjoying being home because school is often challenging for her and she would rather be home playing. Haller said it isn’t easy getting her to focus on school because she doesn’t think of home as the place to do schoolwork.
“Socialization for any kid, but especially for a child on the spectrum, is a challenge, and as a parent, you worry they’re not being pushed enough into some of those social situations because she would probably prefer to be home doing her own thing,” said Haller.
Rhesa Durgin echoed Haller’s concerns about her child regressing in certain areas because she is not getting the time with the special ed teacher at school or the socialization from being around other kids.
“For me as a parent, it is very stressful to feel like I need to do my job and work and when I’m done with that I need to make sure that my kids have completed all of their school work so that they are continuing to learn and they’re not regressing in any areas,” said Durgin.
Durgin explained that although her daughter is more comfortable being at home she doesn’t necessarily feel like that is what’s best for her.
“My daughter, in particular, is very happy to not have to interact with so many peers who she does not understand why they think she is strange. I’m seeing it as — ‘well, she doesn’t have to deal with that stress but sometimes stress is good and you learn and grow from that.’ We know that we have to put our autistic kids into social environments so that they can have that social and emotional learning happening,” said Durgin.
Victoria Romero, Lewis County Autism Coalition Link Coordinator, said that her autistic son, Luis, has been having a difficult time having his schedule and routine interrupted. She said that although Luis doesn’t say many words, the first week of quarantine he was repeating “I like school” and started having a few more “meltdowns” than usual.
“Our family is very out and about. We used to go to Shank’s mini-golf at least twice a month so he could do a lot of physical activity on the bounce houses — things like that, he just doesn’t understand why we’re not going anywhere. I can start to see that affecting him,” said Romero. “Even though it’s stressful for me as a parent, as an adult I have more tools, coping skills, and understanding about the situation when he doesn’t understand it yet.”
Kerri Blankenship, an ESD 113 Regional Administrator for Special Education & Early Learning said that although students are not learning in the traditional sense they are still learning valuable life skills at home such as cooking, gardening, small around-the-house repairs and yard work.
“There are other really valuable life skills that kids are learning that we don’t always focus on in school, so remembering that when you’re giving yourself grace that you are also giving yourself credit for how powerful that will be for your kids in the future,” said Blankenship.
Genevieve Dupois, an autistic adult living in Winlock who serves as a board member for the Lewis County Autism Coalition said she is comfortable and has been enjoying staying at home, though that might not be a good thing.
“If anything, my lack of discomfort is the main problem. Leaning into one's strengths and staying in one's comfort zone too much leads to an inability to adapt to outside situations,” she said. “Basically, the COVID virus hasn't ruined my schedule, but once it's no longer around, that's when my biggest uphill battle will begin as I try to remember how to operate now that it’s no longer acceptable to hide my head in the sand.”
Tanner Calder, an autistic adult working at Cascade Mental Health, said that although he didn’t socialize much before the quarantine, he did enjoy having the option of going out with friends to a restaurant or movie.
Calder said that he doesn’t think quarantine has been more difficult for him than someone who has not been diagnosed with autism and he gets through it by reminding himself that “This will pass. It’ll pass like a kidney stone but it will pass.”
