Handle the Autism Spectrum Condition during Coronavirus (COVID-19) Stay at Home Period: Ten Tips for Helping Parents and Caregivers of Young Children
COVID-19 has become pandemic [1] and many government decrees have declared restrictive
measures in order to prevent its wider spread. For parents and children, staying at home is one of
these measures. In this situation the handling of young children with special needs such as autism
spectrum condition (ASC) could be challenging for families and caregivers. Usually these children
have interventions for several hours a week at home with special therapists or in dedicated hospitals
and institutes. However at the moment, due to contagion containment measures, both the families and
the ASC children are not physically supported by their therapists and they cannot attend the outside
interventions. These measures, necessary for the health of all of us, need to be carefully handled to
avoid an increase in parental stress and an exacerbation of children’s behavioral problems. ASC is
a severe multifactorial disorder characterized by an umbrella of specific peculiarities in the areas of
the social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviours [2]. The incidence of ASC is
worldwide and recent epidemiological data estimated it to be higher than 1/100 [3,4]. The main aim of
this editorial is to give some advice, summarized in 10 tips, to help families to handle children with
ASC during this period.