Home education for children with autism spectrum disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic: Indonesian mothers experience.
When formal supports vanish, brief scheduled respite and a simple coping plan shield moms and kids with autism from spiraling stress.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers talked to Indonesian mothers who had to teach their kids with autism at home during COVID-19.
The mothers shared stories about stress, child problem behavior, and how they coped.
What they found
Mothers felt a heavy caregiving load and saw more meltdowns and self-care issues.
Prayer and planning helped a little, but most said home school was still rough.
How this fits with other research
de Korte et al. (2021) asked Dutch mothers the same open questions and heard the same themes: stress, isolation, and creative fixes.
Alothman et al. (2024) widened the lens. Their survey across Saudi Arabia showed remote-area moms had it even harder than city moms.
Smith et al. (2010) proves this load is not new. Long before COVID, moms of older youth with autism already logged more chores, fatigue, and daily stress than typical parents.
Why it matters
If services stop again, you now have three clear signals: check mom first, carve out daily five-minute respite, and teach a short coping plan. These steps cut stress and keep child gains from sliding.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers and efforts in implementing home education for children with autism, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Five mothers were recruited as participants and interviewed online, as the data obtained were examined through the use of thematic analysis. Also, three main themes were shown, (1) Mothers' experience in implementing home education, as regards adaptability and burden of caregiving, (2) The constraints in home education implementation, as regards maladaptive behaviours of ASD and emerging negative emotions, (3) The efforts to alleviate barriers, as regards problem-focused and religious copings. Also, the implementation of home education during the pandemic was less than optimal, due to the increase in maladaptive behaviours of the autistic children, low adaptability, the burden of caregiving, and emerging negative emotions. Appropriate coping strategies were also observed to help mothers in alleviating the constraints to implementing home education and parenting stress.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.2307/1387689