Special Needs During Special Times

An encouraging story from Claudia Tomaschko

You can achieve high quality learning in a very short period of time! And I have exactly experienced that. 

Working Parents everywhere are struggling right now. Whether you call it a shutdown, a lockdown or isolation, the struggle is real. And parents of special needs children are facing extra special challenges. 

Last week, the NPR radio show "1A" broadcast a segment called "Caring For Children And Teens With Special Needs During A Global Pandemic". I heard it right after reconnecting with a friend and former colleague, Claudia Tomaschko, who lives in Germany. She's also the parent of a special needs child, so I sent the link to her. She quickly wrote back the following:

Thank you so much for sending the link to the Radio Program! I have listened to it immediately and found it very helpful.
 
It was good to hear that everybody struggles with this new situation, but also that my husband and I seem to be doing a lot of things right: We have a visual schedule and clear structure. I do reading and writing lessons and he does math.
 
And I actually really enjoy homeschooling and I have experienced the following:

Our daughter, Lilli, has made HUGE progress with the reading material that I organized for her. We are working in small intense spurts. She has made so much more progress than she has done in all the past year at school.
 
The expert on the radio program said: you can achieve high quality learning in a very short period of time! And I have exactly experienced that. 

Claudia went on to say that it has been lucky that her kids are used to having her work from home on occasion, so the curent situation is not totally foreign to them. And, of course, her work is very busy right now. That's usually a given :)

Claudia Tomaschko is a mother and wife who manages worldwide enablement, certification and communication for indirect sales at Micro Focus. She earned a masters's degree in international business from the ESB Business School at Reutlingen University and lives near Stuttgart in Germany.

​Related stories:
-- Parenting During a Pandemic
​-- Imagination Engaged
​-- Humor Helps
​-- Adapting to the "New Normal"​
​-- Expect the Unexpected (Good News!)
-- Getting Real