Autism and COVID-19: Strategies for Supporters to Help Autistics and Their Families

Matthew Bennett · Emma Goodall

Sep. 2022 · Emerald Group Publishing

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound and potentially ever-lasting impact on our economy, society, and the way that we live. In response to this pandemic there has been a plethora of research published about COVID-19. However, within this fast-growing body of literature there are only scant references made to the impact that this pandemic has had on autistics, their families, and the healthcare professionals who support autistics. Autism and COVID-19 is a concise summary of the research, bridging the gaps in our knowledge about autism and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bennett and Goodall address vaccine hesitancy among autistics and parents raising autistic children, the experiences of autistics living with COVID-19 disease and parenting an autistic child during the COVID-19 pandemic, synthesising the data about the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of autistic, their families, and those that provide autistics with medical assistance.

Autism and COVID-19 both reviews the existing literature and presents new findings from a survey distributed to autistics and parents of autistics during the pandemic, all of which offer a unique and timely contribution to researchers, academics, practitioners, and those working with autistics and their families.

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Matthew Bennett holds a PhD in Disability Studies from Flinders University, South Australia. He has also lectured in Disability Studies at Griffith University, Queensland. Matthew is an active advocate for the rights of people on the autism spectrum.

Emma Goodall is an autism author, researcher and consultant in South Australia. Emma is reviewing programs and developing and implementing research-based policy and programs to enable students on the autism spectrum to flourish, combining her professional and academic skills and knowledge of her lived experience of Aspergers.