‘We don’t know where to turn or what’s happening’
THE mother of a child with special needs has said the closure of schools has had a ‘devastating’ impact on her son.
Eleven-year-old Gavin Jones, who has autism, has deteriorated since the closure of schools, and is withdrawing from his family more and more, his mother Ciara told the Irish Daily Mail.
The Government initially announced that special needs students would be able to return to school next week.
However, the decision was reversed on Thursday evening amid a backlash from teachers.
Ms Jones said her son, who attends the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Huntstown, Dublin, has locked himself away in his bedroom following the ‘devastating’ Uturn and added that she is worried about the impact of more school closures.
She said: ‘We don’t know where to turn or what is going to happen next. ‘We’ve been through one lockdown. We’ve seen the devastation it causes. The Minister [of Education Norma Foley] said she believed it was safe for my child to return to school. She was prioritising the special-education-needs students based on their needs, based on their need to be in school, to be in a routine, to be in an environment where they learn and where they can socially engage and self-regulate.
‘You can’t do anything without thinking about Gavin. He is up in his room. If you’re playing with the other children, you know he can hear the laughs and the fun and games. You’re wondering if he would love to be involved.
‘You’re up and down the stairs because you want to make sure he’s OK. We want to do everything we can to get him to engage. But now, the shutters are starting to go down again.’
The mother of three said that Gavin experienced regression when schools closed last March, but that he had made progress when he returned in September.
She called on the Government to ‘stop the blame game’ and have a ‘meaningful conversation’ about the needs of children with special education needs.
Ms Jones added: ‘They need to understand that it is a domino effect on the mental health of the child, the parent and the other family members when the children are not in school.’