Exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of learners with autism in the West Midlands, England

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Zenenga, A, Nyashanu, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9231-0393 and Towobola, F, 2021. Exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of learners with autism in the West Midlands, England. London: British Educational Research Association.

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Abstract

This report explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the health and wellbeing of children and young learners with autism in two specialist schools in the West Midlands region of England. It reveals experiences of social isolation, anxiety, grief and increased tensions at home, as well as feelings of uncertainty and a lack of safety arising due to changing and confusing guidance about Covid-19. It concludes that autistic learners and their parents need:

• service continuity and greater non-academic support from schools when they are closed
• more guidance and support on how to manage autism at home, and to prevent stress, anxiety, and other mental health problems
• provision of targeted loss and grief counselling services
• an independent national agency tasked with providing clear guidelines for learning professionals and parents in the event of another pandemic or similar emergency.

Item Type:	Research report for external body
Creators:	Zenenga, A., Nyashanu, M. and Towobola, F.
Publisher:	British Educational Research Association
Place of Publication:	London
Date:	29 July 2021
Identifiers:	Number Type 1457067 Other
Rights:	This document is published under creative commons licence Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivs 2.0 UK. For commercial use, please contact publications@bera.ac.uk.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	18 Aug 2021 08:16
Last Modified:	18 Aug 2021 08:16
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/44040