Challenges for Students Returning to School In-Person

The US is beginning to return to school in person for the first time in more than a year. This will undoubtedly create unforeseen challenges for all students but may be even more daunting for children with disabilities and their families. It is becoming evident that most students did not fare well with distance learning, at least in achievement and learning.¹

Additionally, it is becoming increasingly clear that students with disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and those with hearing loss fared even worse. Although there will certainly be additional unforeseen consequences of the cessation of in-person instruction due to the Covid 19 pandemic and the return to class after this hiatus for all students, there are also some predictable difficulties that are likely to arise that can be ameliorated with proper measures—and patience for students with disabilities.

As an example, consider students with ASD.² One of the foundational symptoms of ASD is a preference for routines—and it is widespread for these children to become upset in new settings. Part of my work with ASD includes helping families and teachers acclimate students with ASD to the classroom when they start school. This can be a painstaking process with mindful planning of minimizing distress in a very gradual and systematic manner which often can take weeks.

Rushing the process can have devastating effects on the ability to attend school because many children with ASD are very reluctant to return to places where they have previously had negative experiences. Worse, the routines for classrooms that were previously introduced and acclimated successfully may now have been forgotten, so these skills will have to be relearned. Or, differences such as teachers and students wearing masks in familiar settings may also be very especially distressing for children with ASD–and make acquiring new social skills even more difficult.

In practice, it may be wise to initially view all reattendance as a new environment with careful, gradual, and mindful reintroduction being employed with all students with ASD. Bear in mind that these children have been taught primarily using remote learning with screens, which many students with ASD may prefer to being in school in person with teachers and peers. But, it is vitally important for education and social development that in-person teaching and interaction be reestablished for these children.

Children with hearing loss are another group that was adversely affected by the in-person teaching hiatus and are particularly adversely impacted by mask-wearing.³ These children rely on visual cues (lip reading) to fill in the information they can’t hear. Masks that conceal facial features are especially distressing. Early in the pandemic, I was testing a child with hearing loss and, of course, wearing a mask.

When I started the testing, she began crying and said she couldn’t hear me when I had my mask on. I rescheduled the session and got permission to use a clear face shield, which worked better. But, although she could complete the testing, this student said that the face shield made my voice sound distorted.

As the US returns to in-person teaching, it is also vitally important that teachers, special educators, and related service personnel such as speech pathologists bear in mind that students with disabilities may require special accommodations and have even greater needs than other students. Also, parents and teachers should be proactive in anticipating and implementing the steps needed to reintroduce these students to classrooms.

Students with ASD, may have to relearn how to be “in school” and students with hearing loss may need to see faces to comprehend speech (e.g., asking teachers to wear clear masks or face shields,⁴ or to arrange class so that teachers are protected with a plexiglass barrier) are just two examples of students with disabilities who will require thoughtful support to start school once again. Patience and compassion will be needed.