Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying safety measures, including confinement, has meant an unprecedented challenge for the world population today. However, it has entailed additional difficulties for specific populations, including children and people with disabilities. Being out of school for months has reduced the learning opportunities for many children, such as those with less academic resources at home or with poorer technological connectivity. For students with disabilities, it has entailed losing the quality of the special attention they often need, in addition to a more limited understanding of the situation. In this context, a case study was conducted in a special education classroom of a secondary education school. This class started implementing Dialogic Literary Gatherings with their special education students before the COVID-19 confinement and continued online during the confinement. Qualitative data was collected after a period of implementation of the gatherings showing positive impacts on the participants. The case study shows that interactive learning environments such as the Dialogic Literary Gatherings can provide quality distance learning for students with disabilities, contributing to overcome some of the barriers that the pandemic context creates for the education of these students.
Highlights
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has led most countries to take measures in order to stop the disease from spreading
In face-to-face Dialogic Literary Gatherings (DLG), some strategies such as audiobook and providing pictures about the story were used. These were strategies to adapt the regular operation of DLG to the characteristics and needs of the students, while keeping the essence of the DLG focused on dialogic learning based on the texts
During the observations of the DLG sessions, another recurrent strategy was using the camera to show the pictures and drawings of what was happening in the story, so that all students could see it
Summary
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has led most countries to take measures in order to stop the disease from spreading. Members from vulnerable groups (individuals with poor financial resources, poor health literacy, or with self-reported disabilities) have faced a greater adversity in relation to mental health, especially anxiety and depression (Reading Turchioe et al, 2021), and access to education (Long et al, 2020). This is the case of individuals with intellectual disabilities, who have suffered greater consequences during the pandemic (Courtenay, 2020). People with intellectual disabilities are conceived as a heterogeneous collective, research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
