VIRTUAL LEARNING IS NOT FOR MY CHILD! A PARENTAL PERSPECTIVE OF PRACTICES USED WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM DURING THE PANDEMIC

Abstract

Once the COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic, most countries temporarily closed schools and shifted to home-based distance education. Each country had its own way of implementing education remotely. Turkey used an enhanced version of the currently existing Education Information Network (EBA) to deliver distance education to all children including those with autism. The rapid shift from face-to-face education to home-based virtual learning created unprecedented challenges and impacted development and learning of children with autism who often need individualized and systematic instruction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore parental perceptions about effectiveness of distance education practices for children with autism and challenges they faced during visual learning. A total of 208 parents of children with autism participated in quantitative data collection while 18 also attended to individually conducted interviews. Results indicated many families did not use EBA to support their children’s learning and the content of virtual learning opportunities through EBA was not appropriate for the characteristics of children with autism. Implications for future practice and research as well as the limitations of this study were discussed.