After weeks of France’s strict lockdown, Mohammed, a 14-year-old with autism, took a pickax and started hitting the wall of his house, hoping that he could finally go out.
His explanation: “Too long at home, too hard to wait.”
Coronavirus lockdown is proving a particularly trying ordeal for children with disabilities and their families who are struggling to care for them at home now that special schools and support programs have been shut down.
Mohammed hasn’t picked up the ax again since the incident last month, his father Salah says with relief. But his son still gets exasperated, and says, “I want to break the house down.”
The family, like others who spoke to The Associated Press about what they’re going through, spoke on condition they be identified by first name only, out of privacy concerns for their children.
Making matters worse, Mohammed’s mother, who works in a nursing home, has been on sick leave after testing positive for COVID-19. She had to live for weeks isolated on the top floor of their house in the Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie, and was forced to keep distance from her family. Her health has since improved.
That was particularly hard for Mohammed, who has a close relationship with his mother.
“We kept telling him that there’s the disease. He took note. Then he tried again to go up and see her,” Salah said.
Violent outbursts, incomprehension, disputes, panic attacks: Lockdown is a shock to many children with special needs, cut off from their friends and teachers, deprived of their reassuring routine. And France’s virus lockdown measures _ now in their second month and not set to end until at least May 11 _ are among Europe’s strictest.
At home, Mohammed requires constant attention so that he won’t put himself in danger.
Source: AP
