Updated: Aug 15, 2023
ONH and the impact of Covid19
April 2020 is when the Washington school officials shut down all public school districts in our state. Like most states, school shifted to online learning and instruction while the pandemic ran rampant globally. Our children were taught through Zoom and other online platforms for months and only saw their peers on computer screens. If you were lucky enough to be invited into a pod with your close friends, classmates or neighbors you should consider yourselves lucky, as most children with disabilities were NOT invited or physically able to attend such group activities.
Chrissa was just a few weeks away from turning 10. Double digits and a big milestone birthday! She was in 5th grade and loved, loved, loved attending school. Public school was great for her at the time. She was in a mid level sensory blended program. Half time spent with 1:1 support or small group lessons and half the time with the general education population, peers her age without disabilities. Chrissa has executive functions and sensory processing disorders along with ONH. She was doing so well that spring when school abruptly stopped all in person instruction and switched to online.
In order for her to be successful and access her education she requires in person support and therapies due to her vision loss. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to continue learning Braille on a Braille writer over zoom with her TVI. But we did it! She needed to start in person orientation and mobility lessons later in spring in order to prepare her for the transition to her new middle school campus in fall. Although I planned to take her to the school myself for practice, I would hope that our trained mobility specialist could do this with her too, from a safe distance. That was never offered though. The impact of the pandemic had left my daughter struggling in many ways. She had been excluded from her general education classes and typical peers all due to accessibility issues. She could not participate in zoom meetings for hours at a time like most sighted students due to eye fatigue. She was experiencing headaches and migraines, eye pressure and dry eyes from all the extra screen time. Chrissa skipped a good portion of her zooms due to these problems. She had eye fatigue breaks but she was still physically in pain some days. She did her very best despite all of these challenges and set backs. Another downfall that we navigated through was using screen time to socialize with her friends. We wanted her to enjoy being on the screen occasionally so that she could have virtual play dates. I thought This was more important for her mental health instead of suffering through lessons online alone, when she didn’t always understand the content without my assistance. Chrissa is a power house, like most ONH warriors, and She even advanced in math and reading. She felt good about school in the end when she was with her 1:1 supports on zoom calls but these supports were much more impactful in person. We missed in person school so very much!!
Her mental and emotional health was also suffering as I mentioned. It’s a lot for any child to understand and comprehend what was happening in the world and in our very own neighborhoods. Scary and frightening to children and adults alike. Add that to having an extensive IEP and the change in routine and we saw behaviors! Behaviors I didn’t know my kid was capable of. Wowza ! But, Behind Every behavior is an emotion and feelings, right? I knew I had to get to the bottom of it all so I could better support her. I found story boards and YouTube videos all age appropriate to help her feel less confused. Knowledge is power at all ages! It wasn’t just her suffering through this pandemic it was every single person and made sure she understood that she wasn’t alone with these feelings. Chrissa, like every other student, deserves a free appropriate public education but the pandemic cancelled FAPE which really ruffled my feathers! So many other children in special education suffered as well. When we finally returned to in person schooling everyone wore masks. The only real part of the face that was seen were our eyes. Chrissa has Nystagmus so she feels very self conscious about people staring into her beautiful brown eyes. With sensory issues and disliking the feeling of anything close to her eyes or on her face, Chrissa struggled to wear face masks. On top of ALL of the challenges our ONH kids have, they had to start wearing face masks for 8 plus hours a day with little break to see others smiles! Yes, there’s controversy over masking and Covid-19 vaccines and etc etc etc which I’m not here to speak on, but adding more restrictions to our kids lives just added more parental guilt and stress to mine! Geez Louise it’s tough on us parents as it is!
I’ll never forget the day that Chrissa got to go back to school without a face mask on. We took pictures at the bus stop and when she arrived home from the day her smile was literally ear to ear. She came home rejoicing in the fact that tons of her classmates and teachers were commenting on what a vibrant and radiant smile she had!! It’s the little things like this that help give our children the confidence that they need to feel a sense of community and belonging. A simple compliment goes a long way – this applies to the general public too! Smiles are contagious, pass them on as desired!
To wrap up this blog, I guess it’s important to share that I personally think we all struggled one way or another during the global pandemic. Some of us had to change our daily routines for good, some are still struggling as we have children that are medically fragile. Some of us, even before Covid, wore face masks as protective measures just from the flu and common colds. Now, there’s another variant to worry about. If you haven’t heard it recently, or if your children/child aren’t able to tell you, here’s a big thank you to all the parents and grown ups who continue to go out of their way to make sure they’re protecting their children and also protecting their communities. It doesn’t take much, wash your hands and be courteous when you’re sick, if you need to go out in public. It’s also important to remember that each of us has our own personal preference’s and whether or not it’s your family or a friend – It’s important you respect other peoples opinions, whether you like it or not. And that you stand your own ground and stay firm in your own beliefs. Don’t back down because you’re pressured or bullied. Don’t feel discouraged by people who view things differently from you, each of us matter. We are all going through something, ONH Awareness is here for you!
As always, Thanks for reading!
Joanna