Effects of COVID-19 on the educational performance of children with special educational needs and disabilities: A systematic review according to children's/youth's and caregivers' perspectives.
Students with SEND lost academic and IEP ground during COVID-19, yet kids who kept ABA or parent coaching held onto social and communication skills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Pittas et al. (2023) looked at nine studies that asked kids with special needs and their caregivers how COVID-19 affected schoolwork.
The review pulled together what children and parents noticed about homework, online focus, and IEP goal progress during the pandemic.
What they found
Across all studies, students with SEND lost ground. Homework completion, online attention, task speed, time management, and IEP goals all slipped.
Caregivers and kids agreed: remote learning was harder and progress slowed.
How this fits with other research
Gu et al. (2023) add that over half of these same caregivers felt high stress and 4 in 10 had anxiety or depression, showing the strain reached families too.
Jung-He et al. (2025) and Sergi et al. (2021) seem to contradict the doom picture: kids who kept ABA or parent coaching during lockdown actually made small gains in social and communication skills. The difference is focus—Evdokia measures academic work, while the others track social or language skills that can grow at home.
Lee et al. (2022) fill the gap between the two views: teachers report creative IEP tweaks and some students even liked virtual classes, hinting that skill loss was not universal when teams adapted fast.
Why it matters
When the next closure hits, do not assume every domain will slide. Layer extra supports for homework, attention, and time management, but keep ABA or parent coaching going to protect social and communication gains. Check IEP goals weekly and swap in shorter, caregiver-friendly targets if online fatigue grows.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper aims to provide a first systematic research overview of the effects of the pandemic on the educational performance of children with SEND according to children's/youths and caregivers' perspectives following the PRISMA statement. The studies, published between February 2020 and June 2022, were identified through the search of SCOPUS, EBSCO, PubMed, PsycInfo and two preprint-servers related to Education. In determining which studies to include in the review, the selection criteria were based on (1) articles focusing on ages 4-18 years, (2) articles focusing on children with special educational needs and (3) articles focusing on student achievement during COVID-19. The exhaustive reading and quality assessment left a final sample of nine scientific papers. According to children's/youth's and caregivers' perspectives, there is clear evidence for a negative effect of COVID-19 on the educational performance of children with SEND in the areas of (1) speech and language development (2) home learning (3) academic achievement (4) learning performance and (5) remote learning. The most important findings are to be found in the difficulties faced by children in homework completion, in paying attention during online learning, in efficiently completing tasks, in managing their time and in making progress on their IEP goals during school closures.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104635