Multiple Perspectives on How COVID-19 Affected Family, Educational, Clinical, & Community Life in the Autistic Community

This paper will examine spatial and temporal experiences of autistic children, their caregivers, educators, and clinicians during COVID-19. The knowledge will aid in reflection of current practices in working with the autistic community. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with caregivers of autistic children, educators, and clinicians (n = 68). Collective narrative interviews were also conducted as a part of the project (n = 6). Narrative phenomenology and thematic analysis approaches were used to analyze the data. Narrative interviewing, individually and collectively, is utilized to strengthen our understanding of spatial and temporal experiences of the autistic children, their caregivers, educators, and clinicians during COVID-19 (Mattingly & Lawlor, 2000; Mattingly, 2017; Lawlor & Solomon, 2017). Methods to enhance rigor were incorporated. The themes that emerged from the data included dynamic shifts in spatial and temporal experiences, increased workload for some families, educators, and clinicians, and new insights regarding family and home life. Many participants spent time in shared virtual spaces due to the provision of telehealth and online instruction, which enabled people to connect to others and share various aspects of their lives, however, being in this space also revealed vulnerabilities. This study highlights how narrative methods can be used to enhance our understanding of the spatial and temporal experiences of the autistic community and the complexities that arose due to COVID-19. Furthermore, the findings highlight multiple perspectives and the variability in experiences among participants. For some individuals, the ways in which they experienced their homes, community spaces, and time had shifted during the pandemic and impacted how they viewed their communities and the world (Tokatly-Latzer et al., 2021). We hope these findings will help build effective partnerships to better respond to the needs of the autistic community.