MCO makes special needs kids even more needy
PETALING JAYA: When the first movement control order came into force last March, Yogesh Mohan and her husband found themselves in a predicament over the care of their autistic son since all learning and care centres for special needs children had to shut down.
They both had jobs they were responsible for, she as a court interpreter and he as an IT person.
“We didn’t know what to do because we could not send him to just anyone to be taken care of,” she told FMT. “He was used to a routine. In the mornings he would go to school, and then he would have an after-school programme.
“Once the pandemic started, everything got suspended.”
She ended up resigning from her job so she could take care of the boy, causing a significant loss of income for her family.
Yogesh said life had become a struggle now that the family was depending solely on her husband’s earnings.
Her son was diagnosed with ADHD (moderate autism with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) when he was one-and-a-half years old. He is now seven.
She uses materials she finds online to teach him and conducts a variety of activities with him.
“I have created my own folder of materials,” she said, “and I do my best to make him understand each topic.
She said sending autistic children to special learning centres was an expensive affair and many couples would struggle to pay the monthly fees, “which can be RM8,000, RM10,000 and even RM15,000 sometimes”.
Some of the schools have online programmes, but Yogesh said their sessions were difficult for autistic children to follow.
“Even getting my son to sit through 15 minutes of the class is a struggle. And with the teaching tasks given, it is the parents who end up having to teach them in the house. Yet, we still have to pay the fees in full.”
The government has allowed home-based, one-to-one services for autism since the enforcement of last year’s MCO.
Last April, the National Security Council said private therapists for the disabled and for those with autism were allowed to make house calls, subject to strict health and safety standard operating procedures.
Jochebed Isaacs, the director of Early Autism Project Malaysia, said the lockdown was a big blow on those depending on group-based programmes at learning centres.
She said online learning was not a good alternative because of the broad range of autistic types.
“We can encourage only very high-functioning kids that can interact and do well with computers to conduct their learning online.”
She also said some children would get confused when faced with sudden changes to their daily routine.
“Some children can really struggle with changes,” she said. “They may start to show aggression or other challenging behaviours, such as self-injurious behaviours.”
She advised parents to prepare simple daily schedules for their children to give them new routines.
Her organisation has prepared a free online programme for parents with autistic children. They can access it here. - FMT
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