Experiences of the Mothers to Cope with the Problem Behaviors of the Children with Special Needs during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Process

Abstract

Babies are born into different families, cultures, environments; their first interaction environment is the family. This study investigates the opinions of the mothers who have children with special needs based on the experiences to cope with the children’s problem behaviors in the Coronavirus pandemic process. This study was designed in the qualitative research method. Eleven mothers whose children continue to special education rehabilitation centers in a provincial center in the Southeastern Anatolia Region constitute the participant group of the study.The data obtained using the semi-structured interviews were analyzed with the content analysis method; the findings were described under eight main themes. While observing that the mothers were responsible for in-house communication during the staying home process, their feelings were loneliness, not usually receiving support from partners and relatives. Mothers stated that their children showed self-harm, aggressiveness, and nonrestraint; suggested that the special education institutions’ managers and teachers’ professional competiencies should be strengthened regarding distance education process; family-based effective intervention programs should be developed.

Keywords

• Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• parent-child interaction
• positive behavior support
• problem behavior
• child with special needs