Challenges of Alternative Teaching-Learning Faced by Indian Parents of People with Autism Spectrum Disorder During Pandemic Emergency.

The COVID-19 pandemic stretched between 2020 and 2021 and witnessed impactful changes in the education system inclusive of the special education sector. The special education sector selected online teaching-learning to continue the studies of their students with the help of the parents. The study aimed to find out the challenges faced by parents of people with autism enrolled in special schools who attended online classes along with their children and supported their teaching-learning. The mixed method study (sequential explanatory design) opted for quantitative phases followed by a qualitative phase for further in-depth exploration of the focus area. The quantitative phase consists of 100 participant parents and the qualitative phase consists of 15 participant parents recruited from phase one of the study through purposive sampling based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data were collected via web forms and online interviews were recorded. The univariate analysis was used for the quantitative phase whereas thematic analysis was used for the qualitative phase. The parents had to manage office work, childcare, assisting in online classes, handling the psychological and behavioral issues of the child. Even challenges like learning new technology, managing additional expenses and personal stress were reported. The enormous efforts of the parents helped to overcome many of the challenges and achieve positive learning outcomes. Nevertheless, some recommendations like arrangement of parental workshops, increase in tech education and occasional hybrid mode of learning is suggested.