Back to school: What about children with additional needs?

As schools reopen, teachers and parents working with children who have special needs are determined that they will not be left behind.

James Fitzgerald (8). Picture: Jim Coughlan.

The return to school after the lockdown and the summer holidays will be fraught for pupils with special needs whose lives have been turned upside down due to the pandemic. Their daily routines — particularly important for children on the autism spectrum — went out the window and they also missed the social interaction at school.

Sixteen-year-old Cathal O'Neill, whose primary disability is spina bifida, is a pupil at the School of the Divine Child at the Lavanagh Centre in Ballintemple, Cork. Cathal "thrives" at this special school, says his mother, Pauline.

Cathal O'Neill (16)

If Cathal were to pick up a respiratory disease, "it would be devastating".  He is vulnerable because of restrictive lung disease. When he returns to school, he will be in his own small group. 

"But if he goes to the toilet, other groups will be introduced as well. In school, I don't think there are enough toilets for each classroom. What are they going to do? Sterilise the bathroom every time the kids use it? 

And they're going to meet on the corridor. There are no guarantees that the kids won't pick up something. That was a risk before coronavirus.

Principal, Patricia Harrington, says the classrooms will look different "but I hope they won't be too different. What we've done, is emptied the rooms. There won't be the usual toys that the pupils used to pick up as they wished." 

Patricia, who oversees 40 pupils and seven teachers, explains that one of the teachers is going to be reserved for distance teaching for children who don't make it into the school.

Does she envisage difficulties as the pupils return to school after such a long break? "Some of them will find it difficult but they'll get over it very quickly. They just love the school. Once they come back, we'll do a couple of hours of talking to them. We know them well and we know how to deal with them. I feel sorry for the children who'll be starting out with us. It will be a very strange environment for them. We can't have their families in to have a look around the building so that will be difficult."

The risk of contracting an infection "has always been there. We've always been involved in the intimate care of vulnerable children so we're used to hygiene standards. We just need to step it up a bit more with the SNAs (special needs assistants) wearing masks."

Is it difficult for pupils to understand the concept of a virus? 

"Yes. We have given out resources to the children to help them and we have classroom resources to talk about when the pupils come back. We're trying to keep it as simple as possible."

Sinead Desmond is the mother of nine-year-old Max who has a rare condition, cardiofaciocutaneous syndrome. Max, who attends the School of the Divine Child, suffers from poor muscle tone and has cardiac issues. He also has an intellectual disability, is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair for distance.

He absolutely loves school. The break from it has been very hard for Max. He misses his routine and his friends. He was used to being collected by a bus in the morning. He loves the bus driver and he would smile when he saw his little friends every morning. 

"He is dying to get back to school. He managed seven or eight minutes online watching a teacher from the school, Muireann White, who has been outstanding. Max's face would light up when he saw her. There were days when we had her on a loop! He'd sit on the bean bag and look at her."

Sinead took Max out of school a week before the lockdown as "news of the virus was breaking and Max has a compromised immune system".

She is nervous about Max returning to school. "I'm aware we're lucky. It's a unique school. I know Patricia won't open unless she's fully confident that the children and staff will be safe."

Samantha and James Fitzgerald, at their home in Ballyvolane, Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.

The youngest child in the family, eight-year-old James, goes to a mainstream school, Scoil Padre Pio in Churchfield. He attends a unit attached to the school for children with autism. "James would be fairly good at his school work. But he's very rigid." He couldn't accept his teacher appearing on a video link at home during lockdown, as he only associates her with school. Lisa says he has "regressed". 

"He was a good bit behind at school but in the last year, he came on great. His brilliant teacher really brought him along. But that has all stopped."

However, James is "dying to go back to school" to be with his friends. "He has started going back to the Rainbow Club (a support facility for children and teenagers with autism) and is doing his horseriding again. When things go back to normal, he'll settle back at school. Samantha is the bigger worry."

Adam Harris, the CEO of AsIAm, Ireland's autism charity and advocacy, says it will "be very hard for children on the spectrum to return to school." Routine is very important, so surely the return to school will be good? "But you have to keep in mind that reestablishing a routine is very difficult. For a child [with autism] going back to school after such a long period of time is like starting from ground zero. The child won't be returning to their old routine. We're dealing with a very different normal."

As Adam points out, learning English, Irish, and maths "won't necessarily be the priority for these children". 

"It will be about getting back into a routine, reconnecting with friends, coping with the day. Obviously, a significant amount of autistic children attend special classes in mainstream schools. Hopefully, the child will also spend as long as possible in the mainstream classes so they can integrate." 

There is, Adam says, a need for more special needs assistants, particularly for the initial period of settling back into school. 

"That won't necessarily be easy with things like social distancing. But it's really important that the resources schools are asking for will be provided. Not everybody on the spectrum has a sense of personal space, a difficult concept to understand in normal times. So there's a need to be understanding. Wearing a mask can be an uncomfortable experience for people with autism." 

This and other tips for helping students with autism to return to education can be accessed in 'Lockdown Unlocked' on asiam.ie.