Health and Education Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Other Developmental Disabilities.
Karen Pazol, Lin H Tian, Carolyn DiGuiseppi and 12 others
PMID 38364085WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism experienced significantly more disruptions to therapy and school than peers with other disabilities.
They faced greater barriers with telehealth and masking. Clinicians should anticipate that these families may have missed critical interventions and need tailored support to restart care.
Key findings
01Children with autism were nearly 3.5 times more likely to experience interruptions to specialty services compared to the general population.
02Caregivers of children with autism reported significantly more difficulty using telehealth and wearing masks as barriers to accessing care.
03Children with autism were less likely to be offered live online classes and more likely to experience disruptions to special education plans.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study relies on caregiver recall of events from 2020, surveyed in early 2021, which may introduce bias. Participants who responded to the survey were wealthier, more educated, and more likely to be non-Hispanic White than those who did not respond, potentially underestimating the impact on lower-income families. The study did not determine why telehealth difficulties occurred, so it cannot distinguish between technological issues and child behavioral barriers. Some caregivers may have reported no missed services simply because their child did not use those services before the pandemic, though options to indicate non-applicability were provided.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflict of interests. The study was supported by the U.S. Public Health Service.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that all children with autism missed services or that the barriers were identical for every family. While the group-level data shows high disruption, individual patient histories vary. Also, do not generalize these pandemic-specific barriers to current routine care without assessing the specific context of the patient's access to technology and masking tolerance.