Lockdown was hard for everybody – we were all affected in different ways.
However, it seems that some of the ones who will really be living with the impact of lockdown for a long time, is children with autism across Ireland.
According to
a new report from Dublin City University (DCU), as many as 74 percent of parents who have children with autism say they will be faced with unique challenges now that Covid-19 restrictions are being lifted.
The report highlights a decline in children’s abilities and skills since the introduction of public health measures.
Some worrying numbers from the report were highlighted the following:
61 percent of parents reported a decline in their children’s abilities and skills, both academical and regular living skills, while 34 percents noted a decline in their child's ability to self-regulate emotions.
16 percent of parents admit to having found that their children become anxious when attending public places because of the increased number of people, noise levels and fear of catching the virus.
Returning to school also concerns many autism parents, with many admitting they are worried about their child's social skills. As well as this, one-fourth of parents are worried that their children will find it difficult to adhere to social distancing and public health guidelines.
Also worrying, more than half of parents report that they experienced an increase in verbal protests, acting out and repetitive behaviour.
One of the lead authors, Dr Siéad Smyth from DCU’s School of Psychiatry, said the information from the study would be used to develop a free online resource toolkit, which will be available to parents, children and educators to help them navigate through this uncertain time.
