The last 8 months have been extremely crazy in all facets of our lives here in the United States and around the world due to Covid 19.  We have had to change how we operate in business, education, travel and even in our worship services. One massive change in my own life and for many parents was the switch from face-to-face learning to virtual. This was not an easy learning curve for parents, teachers and students, especially for those with special needs. 

As we finally got into a distance learning groove, last month, my school district gave parents a choice to have their children go back into the classroom face to face or stay virtual for the rest of the semester. This was an extremely difficult decision for me and my family because my son loved going to school and seeing his classmates.  He had not seen them in person for many months and I wanted to make the right decision for his learning environment. We decided to continue distance education for the rest of the semester because it seemed like the best fit for his current academic situation. Keeping my son virtual, allowed me the opportunity to continue to foster a learning space where I would be able to spend more time assisting him in his academics. It also gave me a chance to help bridge the learning gap that had been somewhat lost from last school year.  Of course, this has not been an easy feat and I definitely reached out to his teacher, therapists and others for ideas to make distance learning a smoother ride,

Some of the resources I have found very helpful during this virtual period have been from webinars presented by TACA (the autism community in action), ARI (Autism Research Institute), and even my local YMCA.

Although I never imagined I would be assisting my child at home virtually, it has been a wonderful experience. I have been able to pinpoint what subjects he needs more work on and have been able to assist him with working on his confidence in speech, OT and specials classes such as art and math lab.

Our district is offering the same choices for next semester as well, but we haven’t decided what the next term will look like yet.  Whatever we decide, I know my son will be equipped to handle either situation. Although, this has been a work in progress ever since the beginning of the pandemic, many parents, teachers and practitioners have learned that we must work together in order for our children to continue to succeed in these challenging times.

*Organization websites are listed in the Resources Section