Covid and autism

Covid and autism

Parent has had that talk with their kids about wearing masks, social distancing and everything else that we are doing now to stop the spread.

But there are some families where maybe that message is a little harder to get through - though it hasn't been for lack of tryingkq2's alan van zandt explains .

<<kq2's alan van zandt reports: in this 2020 year of the covid 19 pandemic, it's been a challenging year for all parents, but especially those with children on the autism spectrum -- where routine is especially important during what has been an anything but a routine year.many of the individuals we serve are school age.

They overnight were not going to school anymore.

Helping these families provide some kind of structure so they were still getting some kind of information and learning.for ??????, back in march they incorporated tele-health into their programming -- which at first created some hurdles -- but then some benefits."try to keep her in front of the screen for the duration of a full session was a little challenging.

Luckily the person we had was able to create things to keep her involved so she stuck by there.

We didn't realize once school started and went virtual that the screen time she had with her person translated to going to school as well."luis and his daughter lilianna are getting through the pandemic like all of us --- a little struggle and a lot of adaption.just trying to help them get an understanding of wearing a mask, why we're not going out as much, why we're staying at home more and keeping our distance from people.

Once you get by that it gets a little easier."and just like about everyone else, kids with autism don't like wearing masks.

But what makes communication more difficult for them is missing out on non verbal cues."think about how much you miss when you're talking with someone and when their mouth and nose.like everyone, luis and lilianna will be happy once the pandemic is over, but like everything, they've turned it into a learning opportunity."

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