estimates around one per cent of any given country’s population is on the autism spectrum.
“We can’t accept any more. Our teachers can’t cope,” said Sabrina Ongkiko, who mentors the pair. Teachers had to think up and create their own materials, Ongkiko said. “As for the kids, they find it hard to keep still while on video and they tend to talk at the same time. It’s really hard to manage the class online.”
Such learners often find it particularly hard to focus, to concentrate, teachers say. They lose interest quickly; are easily distracted and are often most affected by the loss of physical interaction with friends and teachers, along with the routine and structure that helped to give a comforting and predictable shape to their day., where a large percentage of pupils are autistic. She said, broadly speaking, anxiety and frustration were now common.
Muhammad’s particular disorder greatly limits his attention span so he found it hard to cope with the switch and this took a toll on the entire family. Child psychologist Katyana Azman, who consults at Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, said that regardless of their particular condition, all the special needs children she worked with had struggled with the transition in one way or another.
Or as Verma, the mother of Rajesh, put it: “At the start, I panicked. I had no idea how I would get through the whole day with my son.” Luckily for Tang, disruption to special needs education in Singapore has been minimal compared to many other places in the region. Other developments in the city state have also helped to soften the impact on parents. Recognising how many carers were struggling with exhaustion, burnout and mental health issues, Dr Lim Hong Huay, an epidemiologist and developmental paediatrician who has two children with autism, founded an informal support group for carers called CaringSG. Their initiatives include doctors, therapists and psychologists volunteering to support carers who are placed on quarantine or home recovery for Covid-19.
It has also helped broaden the horizons of those seeking therapy by opening up the possibility of digital consultations.