How the COVID-19 pandemic affected children with low vision: An Occupational perspective

Abstract

Objectives: Specific needs of children with low vision have emerged during the COVID- 19 pandemic. This study aimed to reveal the occupational experiences during the pandemic period from the perspectives of children with low vision. Materials and Methods: The present study was designed as a concurrent transformative mixed design study. The demographic information form and an online survey which were prepared to enhance the results of the qualitative data, were applied through Google Forms. Semi-structured interviews with qualitative data were collected via telephone conversation / Zoom / Skype according to the personal communication preferences of the families. Results: 38 children with low vision and their families were included in this study. Education or treatment/rehabilitation processes of children with low vision have been adversely affected by the pandemic. It was found that the decrease in social interaction and participation levels, limited social communication and interaction, decrease in activity variety and performance, and sleep patterns were negatively affected by low vision children at school age and without multiple disabilities. Children have experienced limitations in their participation in school and play activities that are very important to their age group. Conclusion: Prior to the pandemic, children with low vision with special needs now have additional problems that require new support systems and arrangements to fully participate in life. There is a need for special adaptations and structuring, especially for the participation of these children in education and rehabilitation services.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• children
• Low vision
• occupational therapy

COVID 19 pandemisi az gören çocukları nasıl etkiledi: Oküpasyonel bir bakış açısı

Abstract

Amaç: COVID-19 pandemisi ile birlikte az gören çocukların özel gereksinimleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çalışma, az gören çocukların bakış açısıyla pandemi sürecindeki okupasyonel deneyimlerini ortaya koymayı amaçlamıştır. Gereç ve Yöntem: Bu araştırma, eşzamanlı dönüşümsel karma desenli bir araştırma olarak tasarlanmıştır. Demografik bilgi formu ve nitel verileri desteklemek amacıyla oluşturulan çevrimiçi anket Google Formlar aracılığıyla, nitel veriler telefon görüşmesi/Zoom/Skype aracılığıyla yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler ile toplandı. Bulgular: Bu çalışmaya az gören 38 çocuk ve ailesi dahil edildi. Az gören çocukların eğitim veya tedavi/rehabilitasyon süreçleri pandemiden olumsuz etkilenmiştir. Okul çağında ve çoklu engele sahip olmayan az gören çocukların sosyal etkileşim ve katılım düzeylerinin azalması, sosyal iletişim ve etkileşimin sınırlı olması, aktivite çeşitliliği ve performansında azalma, uyku düzenini olumsuz etkilediği bulundu. Çocuklar, akranları için çok önemli olan okul ve oyun etkinliklerine katılımda sınırlamalar yaşamışlardır. Sonuç: Pandemi öncesinde özel ihtiyaçları olan az gören çocukların artık hayata tam olarak katılmaları için yeni destek sistemleri ve düzenlemeleri gerektiren ek sorunları ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu çocukların özellikle eğitim ve rehabilitasyon faliyetlerine katılımları konusunda özel adaptasyon ve yapılandırmalara ihtiyaç vardır.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• az gören
• pandemi
• ergoterapi

References

1. Abaoğlu, H., & Aki, E. (2019). Development and psychometric testing of the Family Functioning Questionnaire in Rehabilitation (FFQR). Turkish journal of medical sciences, 49(6), 1766-1773. doi:10.3906/sag-1909-93
2. Alcaraz-Martínez, R., & Ribera-Turró, M. (2020). An evaluation of accessibility of Covid-19 statistical charts of governments and health organisations for people with low vision. El profesional de la información, 29(5). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.sep.14
3. Allen, P. M., & Smith, L. (2020). SARS-CoV-2 self-isolation: recommendations for people with a vision impairment. Eye, 34(7), 1183-1184. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-0917-x
4. Battistin, T., Mercuriali, E., Zanardo, V., Gregori, D., Lorenzoni, G., Nasato, L., & Reffo, M. E. (2021). Distance support and online intervention to blind and visually impaired children during the pandemic COVID-19. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 108, 103816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103816
5. Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8
6. Cellini, N., Canale, N., Mioni, G., & Costa, S. (2020). Changes in sleep pattern, sense of time and digital media use during COVID‐19 lockdown in Italy. Journal of Sleep Research, 29(4), e13074. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.13074
7. Chang, M. J., & Lipner, S. R. (2020). Caring for blind and vision‐impaired dermatological patients during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Dermatologic Therapy. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fdth.14448
8. Collins, K. M. (2015). Validity in multimethod and mixed research. In The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry. DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199933624.013.17

9. Daruich, A., Martin, D., & Bremond-Gignac, D. (2020). Ocular manifestation as first sign of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): interest of telemedicine during the pandemic context. Journal Francais D'ophtalmologie, 43(5), 389-391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfo.2020.04.002
10. Edward, K.-L., & Welch, T. (2011). The extension of Colaizzi’s method of phenomenological enquiry. Contemporary Nurse, 39(2), 163-171. https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2011.39.2.163
11. Gao, J., Zheng, P., Jia, Y., Chen, H., Mao, Y., Chen, S., Wang, Y., Fu, H., & Dai, J. (2020). Mental health problems and social media exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. Plos One, 15(4), e0231924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231924
12. Gilbert, C., Foster, A., Negrel, A., & Thylefors, B. (1993). Childhood blindness: a new form for recording causes of visual loss in children. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 71(5), 485. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2393473/
13. Greene, J. C., & Caracelli, V. J. (1997). Advances in mixed-method evaluation: The challenges and benefits of integrating diverse paradigms. Jossey-Bass. Available from: http://eduq.info/xmlui/handle/11515/15697
14. Gupta, P. C., Kumar, M. P., & Ram, J. (2020). COVID-19 pandemic from an ophthalmology point of view. The Indian Journal of Medical Research, 151(5), 411. doi: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_1369_20
15. Hammami, A., Harrabi, B., Mohr, M., & Krustrup, P. (2020). Physical activity and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): specific recommendations for home-based physical training. Managing Sport and Leisure, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1757494
16. Jebril, N. (2020). World Health Organization declared a pandemic public health menace: a systematic review of the coronavirus disease 2019 “COVID-19”. Available at SSRN 3566298. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3566298
17. Kalaç, M. Ö., & Erönal, Y. (2020). The situation of students with disabilities in the distance education process within the scope of the Covid-19 struggle, problems and solutions. In: Manisa Celal Bayar University. https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12415/6911
18. Kupers, R., Beaulieu-Lefebvre, M., Schneider, F., Kassuba, T., Paulson, O., Siebner, H., & Ptito, M. (2011). Neural correlates of olfactory processing in congenital blindness. Neuropsychologia, 49(7), 2037-2044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2011.03.033
19. Kyari, F., & Watts, E. (2020). How to adapt your eye service in the time of COVID-19. Community Eye Health, 33(109), 14. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2020.2004
20. Li, J., Kim, S., Miele, J. A., Agrawala, M., & Follmer, S. (2019). Editing spatial layouts through tactile templates for people with visual impairments. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300436
21. Negiloni, K., Ramani, K. K., Jeevitha, R., Kalva, J., & Sudhir, R. R. (2018). Are children with low vision adapted to the visual environment in classrooms of mainstream schools? Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 66(2), 285. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_772_17
22. Önal, G., Güney, G., Gün, F., & Huri, M. (2021). Telehealth in paediatric occupational therapy: a scoping review. International Journal of Therapy And Rehabilitation, 28(7), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.12968/ijtr.2020.0070
23. Patel, K. (2020). Mental health implications of COVID-19 on children with disabilities. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 54, 102273. doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102273
24. Rajavi, Z., Safi, S., & Mohammadzadeh, M. (2020). Guidance for ophthalmologists and ophthalmology centers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Ophthalmic and Vision Research (JOVR), 438–441-438–441. Available from: https://knepublishing.com/index.php/JOVR/article/view/7466
25. Rickly, J., Halpern, N., Hansen, M., McCabe, S., & Fellenor, J. (2020). Covid-19: The effects of isolation and social distancing on people with vision impairment. http://doi.org/10.17639/nott.7074
26. Senjam, S. S. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on people living with visual disability. Indian Journal of Ophthalmology, 68(7), 1367. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1513_20
27. Sommer, A. C., & Blumenthal, E. Z. (2020). Telemedicine in ophthalmology in view of the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Graefe's Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00417-020-04879-2
28. Sorokowska, A., Sorokowski, P., Karwowski, M., Larsson, M., & Hummel, T. (2019). Olfactory perception and blindness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Research, 83(8), 1595-1611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1035-2
29. Thevin, L., & Brock, A. M. (2018). Augmented reality for people with visual impairments: Designing and creating audio-tactile content from existing objects. International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94274-2_26
30. Ting, D. S. J., Krause, S., Said, D. G., & Dua, H. S. (2021). Psychosocial impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown on people living with eye diseases in the UK. Eye, 35(7), 2064-2066. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-020-01130-4