“For the first time in I don’t know how long, our country has this shared experience that we all can relate to each other about this one great event that impacted all of us. And I think it has…. Personally, here at [school], it’s made a lot of our teams stronger, because it’s like we all went through this trauma together, but really this shared experience that was the same for everybody but might have impacted them in a different way.” —Administrator of a school for the blind
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the social-emotional health of children, educators, and families. The pandemic triggered enforced social isolation, drastic changes to routines, and anxiety surrounding the threat of the virus and its uncertain future impact. In the current study, 90% of the educators who completed the survey agreed or strongly agreed that the 2020-2021 school year was more emotionally challenging for them than in a typical school year. When asked what percentage of their students experienced social-emotional challenges during the 2020-2021 school year, 47% of the educators who responded indicated that 1%-25% of their students experienced these challenges, and 42% reported that more than 25% of their students experienced these challenges. Long-form qualitative responses provided insight into the most common concerns.
Loneliness and Isolation
Several family members reported that their children felt isolated during lockdowns, resulting from the physical separation from teachers and peers and after losing access to beloved in-person group activities. One parent shared:
“For [my child] being an only child, [COVID] impacted her socialization and exposure to friends and peers…. She normally does ice skating, dance, gymnastics but none of that was happening.” —English-speaking parent of an 11-year-old who is blind with additional disabilities
Masking also created social challenges for some students with low vision attending in-person instruction, who had trouble deciphering nonverbal feedback such as facial expressions. A parent described:
“Sometimes she’ll ask how people feel. I think it’s because they use masks and she can’t really see and with the masks, she doesn’t know if others are happy or not and sometimes, she can’t tell people apart. She confuses people. But she’s invented her own techniques. She’s good at distinguishing voices.” —Spanish-speaking parent of a 7-year-old with low vision and additional disabilities
Fear of COVID
Some family members shared that their children developed anxiety or fear of becoming ill, especially if others close to them contracted COVID. Some children were afraid to go out in public because of the virus or became anxious and distressed when they developed symptoms of COVID. For example:
“The news [about COVID] put a sense of fear in [my child], she was nervous about getting sick. She did get sick, but it was not COVID. She was crying because she thought she had COVID, and she was scared but it wasn’t.” —English-speaking parent of a 15-year-old who is blind
“She tried to never mention the word COVID. She would make me laugh because she would just say, ‘the virus.’”—Spanish-speaking parent of an 11-year-old who is blind
Reluctance to Socialize
While some children experienced sadness or loneliness when social interaction was restricted during the pandemic, others reportedly began to prefer to be alone than to seek out social interaction. Though this may have been a positive development for more introverted or socially anxious children, it was sometimes a matter of concern to their families. One parent said:
“My daughter definitely has gotten more comfortable being by herself which concerns me. We did virtual the whole year. I’m looking forward to when she goes back in person and can rebuild friendships. She would decline phone calls because she was comfortable being alone.” —English-speaking parent of a 19-year-old who is blind with additional disabilities
A second parent agreed:
“[Child] chooses to be alone in her room now, and that is really frustrating to me. I am very much an extrovert.” —English-speaking parent of a 12-year-old who is blind
Stress on Families
In addition to the social-emotional impacts on students, the pandemic impacted the overall well-being of families in many ways. Family members of children who are blind or have low vision often took on the extra work needed to make educational material accessible to their children and to coordinate instruction. Some family members quit their jobs to support their children. These stresses were compounded by other, more general stresses associated with the pandemic. A TVI explained: “And mostly I think families were just overwhelmed, especially for the multiply impaired kids, they’ve got all the services, the hearing, the OT, the PT, the vision, speech, the regular teacher and getting all those Zoom links and everything, families they just couldn’t handle it and I totally get that.” A state vision consultant echoed this sentiment, adding: “That’s when the family and kid go into survival mode. In survival mode they don’t learn. It’s all about living.”
The feelings of being overwhelmed were especially acute for families of children with multiple disabilities and medical conditions. During the first and second Access and Engagement studies, educators talked about the unique challenges faced by students with multiple disabilities and their families. To investigate these challenges in greater depth, the current study included family members of several children with multiple disabilities, including two whose children require home healthcare support. These families were especially impacted by the lack of consistent, reliable nursing care and limited availability of therapists to work in person with children. This required family members to take on caregiving roles themselves or needs went unmet. The lack of care providers impacted not only the students’ educational outcomes, but also their mental health and that of their families. One parent described:
“We kept trying to get help with nursing, and if we got someone once or twice a week, it was generous. It was hiring students to come in and do therapy…Trying to be therapist and teacher [myself], it was a nightmare.” —English-speaking parent of a 16-year-old with low vision and additional disabilities
The other shared a similar experience:
“At home, we have seen a tremendous amount of hours not covered for nursing care. This month alone [July 2021] started out with 17 nights uncovered…It increased my stress level tremendously because of the lack of assistance.” —English-speaking parent of a 20-year-old with low vision and additional disabilities
