Abstract
Abstract Background: The closure of all educational institutions and most rehabilitation centres represents a precautionary measure to face the COVID-19 pandemic, but the isolation and social distancing may be particularly challenging for children with special needs and disabilities (SEND), such as Rett Syndrome (RTT). The main aim of this study was to promote cognitive and social interactions among children with RTT through an interactive school program. Methods: The Interactive School palimpsest was composed of moments in which a teacher spoke directly to children with RTT and expected a response through eye gaze, and moments in which stories-cartoon were presented while tracking the eye gaze of children. We investigated behavioural, social and cognitive parameters.Results: Children participated in both social and cognitive tasks with the spontaneous reduction of stereotypies and with increase in attention. They recalled more significant indexes when music or a song was presented together with a cartoon or a cognitive task. Conclusions: This study provides initial insights in promoting cognitive and social interactions and in the support needs of families with a child with RTT during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Highlights
The closure of all educational institutions and most rehabilitation centres represents a precautionary measure to face the COVID-19 pandemic, but the isolation and social distancing may be challenging for children with special needs and disabilities (SEND), such as Rett Syndrome (RTT)
Behavioural and cognitive measures Regarding the number of seconds of attention (FL) to social and cognitive tasks, Table 2 shows the means and standard deviations of the parameters attention and time spent in stereotyping
The stereotypes tend to be higher when the patients are not engaged than when they are engaged in a social task or a cognitive task (paired-t test is respectively t(36)= 8.1, p
Summary
The closure of all educational institutions and most rehabilitation centres represents a precautionary measure to face the COVID-19 pandemic, but the isolation and social distancing may be challenging for children with special needs and disabilities (SEND), such as Rett Syndrome (RTT). On 10th March 2020, schools, universities and all centres that hosted patients with special needs and disabilities (SEND) in Italy were closed to all pupils This imposed closure of all educational institutions and most rehabilitation centres represents a precautionary measure to face the COVID-19 pandemic; similar measures have been taken in countries all around the world. As a consequence, accessing adequate rehabilitation and special education treatments was challenging for RTT patients, already before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current imposed measures render conventional treatments even harder to access In this context, life may become extremely difficult for parents of SEND children, such as those affected by RTT, who meet their child’s needs all day and every day, without the usual support of external professionals, teachers, schools and rehabilitation centres
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