Home education for children with autism spectrum disorder during the COVID-19 pandemic: Indonesian mothers experience

This study aimed to explore the experiences of mothers and efforts in implementing home education for children with autism, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. Five mothers were recruited as participants and interviewed online, as the data obtained were examined through the use of thematic analysis. Also, three main themes were shown, (1) Mothers' experience in implementing home education, as regards adaptability and burden of caregiving, (2) The constraints in home education implementation, as regards maladaptive behaviours of ASD and emerging negative emotions, (3) The efforts to alleviate barriers, as regards problem-focused and religious copings. Also, the implementation of home education during the pandemic was less than optimal, due to the increase in maladaptive behaviours of the autistic children, low adaptability, the burden of caregiving, and emerging negative emotions. Appropriate coping strategies were also observed to help mothers in alleviating the constraints to implementing home education and parenting stress.