Trying times - Feature story - Print Version

By: Symphony Griffith

Faith and her son Ephraim (Photo by Faith)

The responsibilities of being a parent is never a walk in the park, but parenting during a pandemic is an entirely new challenge when you have a special needs child.

The force closure of schools because of Covid-19, has placed Faith, a young mother who falls into this category, to face these new challenges.

Her eight-year-old son Ephraim, was diagnosed with multiple disorders when he was born. He has a global developmental delay, which means that he has not met the required milestone by the expected age. He also has a sensory processing disorder; this is when the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information that comes in through the senses. He also falls within the autism spectrum, and has digestion issues.

The closing of schools has meant the loss of a dozen or more helpers throughout the day who teach special needs children everything; from how to grip a pencil or tie shoelaces, to social skills and handling full-blown meltdowns.

A major concern that Faith has is not being able to assist her son with the same level of special education that he receives at school. That’s because “that is not the type of teaching a regular everyday teacher does,” she said.

These teachers are trained to cater to the specific needs of each child, which poses a major challenge to her now, because she feels as though she has to take on the role of a special needs teacher.

Therefore, to prevent Ephraim from falling back in his development, she has teamed up with her mother so the two of them can create a regime at home in order for him to progress.

Ephraim developing his motor skills 

The daily routine now includes activities which will help to develop his fine motor skills. Topping the list is crafting, where they make things out of scrapbook material, use construction paper to make cute decorations; thread beads on pipe cleaner; make shapes out of playdough, and practice writing with jumbo side walk chalk and jumbo crayons. She has also included baking, and allows him to pick off small pieces of dough under her supervision.

As a child, he gets bored easily, so she tries to let him utilize the tablet for educational content to keep him focused. Workouts are also done on mornings to try to cover the missing physical activity that he was getting at school. This also includes keeping up with a feeding routine to ensure that he does not put on any unnecessary weight, and a “potty” training schedule.

The twenty-four-seven care that is needed is quite overwhelming for her, because amidst all of this, she is still a college student trying to keep up with her own work. 

Ephraim watching videos on the tablet

According to her, throughout the day, her quiet time is usually disrupted by his uncontrollable vocal outbursts.  In addition, she has to constantly check on him and monitor his behaviour.

Thankfully, through the John Payne section of the Sunshine Early Stimulation Centre and their family services department, Ephraim’s school has recently started to send links to websites and utilizing social media sites such as WhatsApp and Facebook. Parents can go on their page and find activities previously done with the children for ideas. Faith can do these activities at home with Ephraim.

Teachers and students of the Sunshine Early Stimulation Centre (Photo by Barbados Today)

“That actually eased a lot of the fear and frustration that may be in the household at this point in time, which would then in turn ease him,” she explained.

However, even though they have started doing so, Faith still has a lot going on at the back of her mind as a mother.

“How long will this last?” she asked.

“The expected thing is for the school term to resume with online teaching for the regular government schools, but he goes to a private special needs school, so I’m thinking what is going to happen when the school term resumes and he cannot physically attend school?”

Faith fears that she is still going to be here trying to figure out how to ensure that Ephraim continues being educated at the right level. She also fears that this situation will possibly cause him to regress in many ways.

 “It is a bit overwhelming, but I’m trying to do the best I can,” she added.