Special Education Needs students under pandemic

During the pandemic, all students cannot back to school for lessons, even using online teaching, the learning process would still be affected. According to a study by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, students from secondary school felt extra pressure and anxiety after changed to online teaching. So, we can see even most students will be affected by the whole situation. Now, imagine students who are in special education needs.

In the past year, schools shut down due to various reasons, health care services also, it is a huge challenge for SEN students. For example, their mental health, also for their parents. Not only their skills would stop developing, but they also missed chances for developing their social skills. Other than that, their parent might not know how to teach their children under this extreme situation, then lead to a negative impact on their mental health.

According to the number by School Education Statistics Section, from 2015 to 2019, the number of students in secondary school, primary school, and SEN student are all steadily rising.

Kingman, director of IMTC, registered music therapist, also agreed with the needs of SEN students during the pandemic situation. He mentioned social skill practice is very important for them, using music therapy not only could train their motor skills, but also increase social skill opportunities for them.

Kingman said, during the online meeting with SEN students, it is providing an environment for them to interact, to train their social skills. Some parents reported that online therapy session is significantly reducing their children negative emotion, think it is a doable solution. Kingman said, we cannot ignore the needs of SEN students, it is a challenge to them and to us. He hopes the pandemic situation will end soon.