While the COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental to the education of all students, its impact has been especially observed in primary education. Owing to prolonged confinement due to the lockdown, social detachment, and excessive screen time at an age crucial for intellectual development; there has been a lapse in the basic foundation of education. Such lapses or even unfortunate intellectual development deterioration has compounded the behavioural anomalies of children with intellectual disabilities and slowed their learning process.
Impact on primary education:
Meenakshi Das (name changed as requested) is presently taking courses on supporting children with intellectual disabilities and autism. Her son was about a year and two months old when the lockdown was imposed. With such unprecedented circumstances, as the priorities of the parents’ changed, as has been the case with everyone- earnings and fending for the family being the foremost concern- the child was given access to the virtual world at a much earlier age.
“Both my husband and I had to worry about our job. Then as work-from-home became the norm, balancing our time became difficult. We are a nuclear family, and with no helping hand due to the circumstances, we would let him see cartoons on TV or mobile phone. He would be busy with it and we could do our work easily,” said Meenakshi.
She recalls that her son started verbal interaction at a much younger age. “His babbling was incomprehensibly like every child his age but he could make sounds of alphabets and understood such things. We have not taught him these but we were happy with his learning which was of course from watching TV and phone.”
Das said that being impressed with her son’s early learning he was introduced to educational cartoons with rhymes and stories to which he responded well. But they noticed gradual behavioural changes in him.
“We noticed that his attachment and communication with us have stopped. Gradually he stopped making eye contact, would not respond to our efforts of verbal communication, and would remain glued to the screen,” she added.
Meenakshi said that his screen time at a very early age of 2 and a half years was over 5 hours daily. With his behavioural changes, the concerned parents took him to paediatricians and clinical psychologists for consultations. Following several rounds of screening, he was diagnosed with mild autism. Presently he is a student at Shishu Sarothi in Guwahati, a centre for rehabilitation and training for multiple disabilities.
After months of support, her 4-year-old is learning verbal communication and has recently uttered his first word ‘Ma’. His teacher said that he is still learning to scribble while regular students of the Integrated class (where both students with and without intellectual disabilities are taught together) already know their alphabet and a few numbers.
Another 14-year-old child with cerebral palsy needs complete support post the pandemic whereas he could at least walk and hold the spoon with minimal help prior to the pandemic. His special educator informed that her students had been improving prior to the lockdown after 4-5 years of training and rehabilitation programs. However, the lockdown period has deteriorated his condition further. Post the lockdown, efforts are being made for him to regain his past capabilities, but progress has been slow.
Rekha Deka, Special Educator with 17 years of experience said, “The definition of primary education is different for children with disabilities. For those with intellectual disabilities, it is learning to do basic things like communicating, playing, eating by themselves, etc. Academic education goes on simultaneously or at a later stage for many students. With intensive interventions, many cases have joined the mainstream education system and are doing good. With such possibilities the lapse in overall primary learning due to the lockdown is worrisome.”
Deka and other special educators informed that the greatest hurdle during the initial months of the lockdown had been offering the parents moral support and encouraging them to be more involved in the education of their children, who are otherwise in the care of the teachers. “Many parents were sceptical about their children’s ability to cope with online education. Ideally, the educational part is done in school by the teachers although we ensure the involvement of parents 2-3 days a week as per requirement. As circumstances changed parents were taught online how to help their child with the daily physical and mental exercises and other learning activities,” said Deka.
She mentioned that although the results were commendable, online education could never suffice for the dedicated one-to-one special care and attention students receive from specially trained teachers.
Meera Saikia, Deputy Director of Early Intervention at Shishu Sarothi said that social detachment and excessive screen time have led to major adversities and behavioural lapses that might not be overcome entirely in many cases or will be extremely difficult to bridge for many students.
“The most affected are the children with autism. Children with autism have difficulty with communication, difficulty with social interactions, poor eye contact, obsessive interest in a limited number of things and problems with paying attention, repetitive behaviour, and restlessness. Online education demanded that they remain in their seat for a long time (relative to their condition) which was a difficult feat to achieve. Also, classes were limited to an hour or two, which was not sufficient,” said Saikia.
Saikia said that post lockdown, as students had to be reacquainted with society and the school environment, and basic behaviours like attention and verbal communication had to be re-taught, there has been a natural gap in the educational front. “Deteriorated socio-emotional and cognitive development in the two years of lockdown had pushed back the learning schedule of these students while elongating the time required for most students to join regular educational institutions.”
Sayera Rahman, Director of Prerona Pratibandhi Sishu Bikash Kendra in Jorhat, an organization working for children with disabilities, highlighting similar fallouts also informed that insufficient nutrition or even enough food for children of economically backward families has further impacted their overall growth thus limiting educational progress. Additionally, the dropout rate has increased substantially due to a lack of finances. She worries about a batch or two of illiterate children who are a direct consequence of the pandemic- about two batches who will remain deprived of even primary education.
Rekha Deka has expressed similar concerns that there has been no new admission in 2021 owing to the fearful contagious situation that has wasted a crucial year of the fastest learning age of children.
Clinical Psychologist Sandamita Choudhury, informing about the alarming numbers of neuro-development disorders among students of primary sections stated, “The pandemic has delayed the diagnosis for many students, subsequently delaying medical intervention. I have been consulted for children of 5-6 years but the onset of behaviour changes in them was noticed when they were 2-3 years. The lockdown has delayed the entire consultation by 2-3 years, which has impacted their learning capabilities.”
Choudhury said that online classes and promotion to senior classes without actual learning during the lockdown have had major adverse effects on students with learning disabilities in academics. “Usually learning disabilities can be detected by classes 3-4 when the syllabus gets a bit difficult. Again early intervention, counselling, and operational training help them overcome this condition. For two years as the classes were held online, homework and exams were written by looking into books or with the help of parents; as there was not much pressure to learn on the students, their learning disabilities were not noticed.”
According to Choudhury, the learning disabilities became evident only after regular classes and exams were resumed. “But now the pressure is a bit too much for them to deal with and overcoming such conditions will take longer. Automatically they are falling back on academics,” she added.
Alarming Cases of Virtual Autism:
Educators and therapists for intellectual disabilities have highlighted the alarming rise in cases of virtual autism. Teachers of Shishu Sarathi have mentioned that the institution was initially aimed mainly at children with cerebral palsy. But over the past few years, they have found an increasing number of parents seeking help for children with autism. The rate of autism cases, according to Shishu Sarothi, has further accelerated during the lockdown, of which most have virtual autism that could be cured with proper early intervention.
“We have had cases where children who were good in studies prior to the lockdown are showing increasing traits of autism. This is mainly attributed to excessive screen time which has caught most of their attention and interest, distracting them from other regular activities. We found they still understand most things but do not communicate verbally or have lost the habit of speaking. This is because virtual interaction is one-sided whereby there is no scope for the children to communicate back,” said Meera Saikia.
Saikia cited cases where children whose parents are Assamese are more comfortable understanding and speaking Hindi or English but have not picked up the mother tongue. She attributed this to the early introduction to the virtual world where programs are mostly in Hindi or English rather than the mother tongue.
“With so much already occupying their minds it is difficult for them to learn more. Thus they lag in learning their mother tongue and also in basic education,” she added.
However, proper screening and with early intervention there are many success stories, although with lapses in age-appropriate intellectual growth. Teachers and experts have expressed concern that this delay in primary learning may be difficult to overcome for many.
Dear Reader,
Every day, our team at EastMojo travels through rain, rough roads, and remote hills to bring you stories that matter – stories from your town, your people, your Northeast.
We do this because we believe in truthful, independent journalism. No big corporate backing, no government pressure – just honest reporting by local journalists who live and breathe the same air you do.
But to keep doing this work, we need you. Your small contribution helps us pay our reporters fairly, reach places others ignore, and keep asking the tough questions.
If you believe the Northeast deserves its own fearless voice, stand with us.
Support independent journalism. Be a Member.
Thank you,
Karma Paljor
Editor-in-Chief, eastmojo.com
Prof. Satya Mahapatra, founder of the Institute of Health Sciences in Odisha and Chief Coordinator of the eastern zone of the Rehabilitation Council of India said, “Pandemic forced all the educational institutions to shut down and interrupted the delivery of professional intervention. Virtual autism is a confusing term as autism is a regressive disorder. In most children motor milestones, communication and social skills and response to environmental stimuli were normal till 1-2 years. But then they started showing disinterest and regression from communication and society. The tendency to get engrossed in gadgets and solitary play got extensive. Early assessment and medical intervention can address these features, which are not necessarily in the spectrum of autism, and help the students to get integrated into regular or integrated educational institutions.”
Also Read | Climate change increasing risk of new viruses, infectious in India: experts