Remote Learning and Stress in Mothers of Students with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder during the Covid-19 Lockdown Daniela Cvitković* 1 , Ana W agner Jakab 2 and Jasmina Stošić 2 • The Covid-19 lockdown and the implementation of remote learning brought challenges to children with ADHD and their parents. This re - search aimed to examine the spatial and technical preconditions and quality of support for children with ADHD during remote learning and to determine their mothers’ burdens with the children’s school tasks during the first lockdown. Another aim was to determine the degree of academic accommodation of teaching, the mother’s burden with the school tasks, and the impact of the intensity of the children’s difficul - ties on mothers’ stress levels. The study had 61 mothers of children with ADHD, aged 30 to 53, as participants. Data were collected using an on - line questionnaire. The perspective of mothers showed that spatial con - ditions were not appropriate for holding online classes. Furthermore, teaching materials during online classes were not adapted to the child’s needs, teachers did not send teaching materials through the available online services in a proper manner, and more than a third of the moth - ers stated that there was no interactive teaching at all and that there was no individual contact with teachers. Most mothers state that they are burdened with the child’s school tasks more than compared to the pe - riod before the lockdown. It has also been shown that attention symp - toms, lack of academic accommodations, and school workload have sta - tistically significant effects on maternal stress. Keywords: ADHD, remote learning, stress in mothers, Covid-19 lockdown 1 *Corresponding Author. Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; daniela.cvitkovic@erf.unizg.hr. 2 Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.1496 Published on-line as Recently Accepted Paper: September 2023 c e p s Journal remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 2 Učenje na daljavo in stres pri materah učencev z motnjo pomanjkanja pozornosti s hiperaktivnostjo (ADHD) med zaprtjem zaradi covida-19 Daniela Cvitković, Ana W agner Jakab in Jasmina Stošić • Zaprtje zaradi covida-19 in izvajanje učenja na daljavo sta prinesla iz- Zaprtje zaradi covida-19 in izvajanje učenja na daljavo sta prinesla iz - zive za otroke z motnjo ADHD in njihove starše. Namen te raziskave je bil preučiti prostorske in tehnične predpogoje ter kakovost podpore otrokom z motnjo ADHD med učenjem na daljavo in ugotoviti obreme - njenost njihovih mater s šolskimi nalogami otrok med prvim zaprtjem. Drugi cilj je bil ugotoviti stopnjo akademske prilagoditve pouka, obre - menjenost mater s šolskimi nalogami in vpliv intenzivnosti težav otrok na ravni stresa pri materah. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 61 mater otrok z motnjo ADHD, starih od 30 do 53 let. Podatki so bili zbrani s pomočjo spletnega vprašalnika. Vidik, ki so ga izrazile sodelujoče matere, je po - kazal, da prostorski pogoji niso bili primerni za izvajanje pouka prek spleta. Poleg tega učna gradiva, rabljena med poukom prek spleta, niso bila prilagojena otrokovim potrebam, učitelji učnih gradiv niso pošiljali prek razpoložljivih spletnih storitev na ustrezen način, več kot tretjina mater pa je navedla, da interaktivnega pouka sploh ni bilo in da ni bilo individualnega stika z učitelji. Večina mater navaja, da so bolj obreme - njene s šolskimi nalogami otrok v primerjavi z obdobjem pred zaprtjem. Pokazalo se je tudi, da simptomi pozornosti, pomanjkanje učnih prila - goditev in šolska obremenitev statistično pomembno vplivajo na stres mater učencev. Ključne besede: motnja ADHD, učenje na daljavo, stres pri materah, zaprtje zaradi covida-19 c e p s Journal 3 Introduction Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Croatia introduced a lock - down. Consequently, the schools were closed, and classes switched to remote learning; prior preparation for such a form of teaching had not occurred. For students from the first to the fourth grades of primary school, teachers organ - ised classes through public television. The schools could hold classes remotely by implementing various modalities. For upper grades of primary and second - ary school, classes were held remotely. Some teachers held real-time interactive classes via online platforms (e.g., Microsoft Teams), and some sent teaching ma - terials and assignments to students electronically. In the context of the definition of remote learning as a learning experience in a synchronous or asynchronous environment using different devices with Internet access, whereby students can be located anywhere during learning and interaction with teachers and other stu - dents (Singh & Thurman, 2019), the teaching thus took place both synchronously and asynchronously. Huang et al. (2020) identified the following factors for the effectiveness of online learning: 1) reliable communication infrastructure; 2) appropriate digital learning resources; 3) suitable learning tools; 4) effective learning methods; 5) organisation of learning in class; 6) effective teacher and student support services; 7) close cooperation between governments, businesses, and schools. The pandemic brought a change in routines, limited ability to move, chal - lenges of working and learning from home, which is affected by the confined spaces in which all household members reside, and the lack of digital equipment needed for all household members in some families. These circumstances pose an even greater challenge to children with disabilities. Children with developmen - tal disabilities may be at increased risk of deteriorating learning and social skills when changing, reducing or eliminating typical services (Frederick et al., 2020). In this situation, it can be expected that the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including inattention, hyperactivity, and im - pulsivity, intensified. Studies from other countries have shown that during the Covid-19 pandemic, children with ADHD had more intense and more frequent behavioural problems than before the pandemic (McGowan et al., 2020; Zhang et al., 2020). Due to the very nature of difficulties (attention, executive functions, etc.), students with ADHD often need support in learning and doing homework. Problems in doing homework include low motivation and productivity, avoiding and delaying school responsibilities, off-task behaviour, poor time organisation and planning for learning (Habboushe et al., 2001). Experiencing the pandemic remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 4 showed that parents of students with ADHD had more challenges and less con - fidence in managing and supporting remote learning and rarer communication with school (Becker et al., 2020). Since this form of teaching came unplanned and without prior preparation, it is to be expected that students could not have received the necessary teacher support in proper measure. Most parents of chil - dren with disabilities, including ADHD, from several European countries report a partial or complete lack of additional support during lockdown homeschooling (Thorell et al., 2020). Research evidence suggests that switching to remote learning greatly af - fected daily functioning (Thorell et al., 2021) and increased parental stress (Amer - ican Psychological Association (APA), 2020) and depression (Lee et al., 2020) among all parents of children with disabilities are expected to be under even greater pressure. Parents of children with disabilities describe the challenges and impacts of the pandemic on everyday life: closing schools, insufficient access to therapies, re - mote learning, staying at home, health care due to virus infection, loss of family members and friends due to Covid-19, working from home and simultaneously taking care of children, financial difficulties, mental problems in parents, increased level of unwanted behaviour in children, sleep problems, and other additional stressors (Latzer et al., 2021; Mann et al., 2021; Masi et al., 2020; Neece et al., 2020). Parents or guardians of children with ADHD list stressors related to re - mote learning related to distractibility, lack of academic accommodations, and home isolation (Becker et al., 2020). Furthermore, mothers of students with ADHD report that remote learning has not sufficiently enabled their children to receive an adequate level of learning (Tessarollo et al., 2021). Additional time and effort with mostly no formal education or training to ensure the involvement of children in remote learning and therapy may contrib - ute to increased burdens and poorer quality of life (Pecor et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2020). Stress is higher in parents of children with ADHD whose behavioural problems have intensified than those of neurotypical children (Iovino et al., 2021). A Chinese qualitative study (Mo & Chan, 2021) dealing with the involve - ment of parents of children with ADHD in education in the traditional way of teaching identified five topics in this field, one of which is the father’s lack of participation in the care and schooling of children with ADHD. It has been shown that mothers are the most engaged in their children’s education (Mo & Chan, 2021). It is to be expected that the participation of mothers of children with ADHD in school matters was even more intense during the lockdown and remote learning, as confirmed by the studies of Tessarollo et al. (2021). Mothers of sons with ADHD report greater difficulties coordinating maternal and work c e p s Journal 5 obligations and teaching children in relation to mothers of neurotypical students. This is contributed to by the fact that children with ADHD before and during lockdown are mostly cared for by their parents, while parents of neurotypical peers have greater support from grandparents and other relatives and friends (Tessarollo et al., 2021). Therefore, it is to be expected that the burden on parents of children with ADHD, especially mothers, was even greater during the time of pandemic and remote learning. Researching studies that directly address the impact of certain variables related to ADHD students on their parents’ stress during the COVID-19 pan - demic has resulted in only one work by Yousef et al. (2021). Using correlation analysis, they found, among other things, that greater challenges in structuring activities in managing the child’s sleep than before COVID-19 and the gender of a child with ADHD are statistically and significantly related to stress in moth - ers. No research was found that identifies the specific contribution of gender, the intensity of ADHD symptoms, teaching accommodations, and stress burden in mothers of children with ADHD. Because of the obvious challenges that lockdown and remote learning brought to children with ADHD and their parents, especially mothers, we were interested in researching the situation in Croatia. The lockdown and the implementation of remote learning have brought some challenges for children with ADHD and their parents. This research aimed to examine the spatial and technical preconditions and academic accommo - dations and the methods and quantity of implementation of various forms of teaching for children with ADHD during remote learning. The second aim was to determine the mother’s burden with the child’s school tasks during the first lockdown. The third aim was to evaluate the degree of academic accommoda - tion of teaching, the mother’s burden with the school tasks, and the severity of ADHD symptoms as possible predictive factors of the mother’s stress during the COVID-19 lockdown. Therefore, the following research questions have been set: RQ1: From the mothers’ point of view, what were the spatial and technical preconditions, academic accommodations and the methods and quanti - ty of implementation of various forms of teaching during remote learn - ing for children with ADHD? RQ2: To what extent were mothers of children with ADHD burdened with their child’s schoolwork during the lockdown? RQ3: Did the academic accommodations to the child’s difficulties, the moth - er’s burden regarding schoolwork, and the severity of ADHD symptoms during the lockdown affect the mother’s stress? remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 6 Method Participants The participants were 61 mothers of children with ADHD aged 30 to 53 (M = 41.95, SD = 5.46). The characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1. The criteria for including the participants in the study were that their child had ADHD diagnosed by clinicians and was from 7 to 15 years old (pri - mary school age in Croatia). All pupils with ADHD included in this study at - tended mainstream schools and had an individualised education plan (IEP) with accommodations. The study was conducted at the beginning of the pandemic; at that time, two mothers and four of their household members had already contracted COVID-19. Table 1 Sociodemographic Characteristics of Participants (N = 61) Characteristics N % Education Level Elementary 1 1.6 High School 29 47.5 College, University 25 41 MSc or PhD 6 9.8 Employment Status Employed 34 55.7 Employed Part-time 15 24.6 Unemployed 10 16.4 Maternity Leave 1 1.6 Caregiver Status 1 1.6 Place of Residence, Number of Citizens Rural 12 19.7 City < 100,000 19 31.1 City > 100,000 30 49.2 Number of Children 1.00 17 27.9 2.00 27 44.3 3.00 14 23.0 4.00 2 3.3 5.00 1 1.6 c e p s Journal 7 Instruments Socio-demographic data were gathered for all participants, including age, education level, employment status, place of residence, number of children in a family, and the age of a child with ADHD. Spatial and technical preconditions were measured through dichoto - mous variables; participants were to indicate whether the space for work and electronic equipment they had was sufficient for conducting classes at home. Academic accommodations, satisfaction with methods and quantity of implementation of various forms of teaching were measured using four vari - ables on a three-point Likert scale. Mothers answered a question to assess whether they were equally, more, or less burdened with their child’s school assignments during online classes than before the pandemic. The severity of ADHD symptoms was measured using the shorter ver - sion of the Pelham Rating Scale (i.e., the fourth version: SNAP-IV (Swanson et al., 2001)). The shorter form of the scale consists of 26 items that are rated on a four-point scale (not at all, just a little bit, pretty much, a lot). The items are divided into three subscales: inattention (nine items), hyperactivity/impul - sivity (nine items), and oppositional/defiance disorder (eight items). The sub - scales for inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity were used for this research. A higher score indicates a higher number and more pronounced symptoms of those difficulties. The scale has good metric characteristics that have been confirmed in several studies; it is used for both clinical and research purposes (Swanson et al., 2001). Stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), devel - oped to determine the current levels of experienced stress and how unpredict - able, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives (Cohen et al., 1994). It is a ten-item scale on which respondents rate the items using a four- point Likert scale, with zero meaning ‘never’ and four meaning ‘very often’ . A higher score on the scale indicates a higher level of stress. The scale was adapted and applied to the Croatian sample (Hudek-Knežević et al., 1999). Cronbach’s alpha on that sample was 0.88, and the Screen test revealed one factor that ex - plains 44.1% of the pooled variance. Research design An online survey was created and sent to users of the leading centre for diagnosing ADHD in Croatia and shared on social networks among groups of remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 8 parents of children with ADHD. A cover letter identifying the purpose of the study was included in the questionnaire’s introduction. Responding to the ques - tionnaire was interpreted as giving consent. Data was collected from the end of May until the end of June 2020. A total of 67 respondents completed the ques - tionnaires. When checking for inclusion criteria, some questionnaires had to be excluded, which resulted in 61 questionnaires that were ready for further analysis. All the analyses were performed using SPSS 25 for Windows (IBM, Chi - cago, IL, USA). Descriptive analysis included means and standard deviation. The Pearson correlation coefficients determined the bivariate correlation. Lin - ear multiple regression analyses enabled the estimation of the incremental vari - ance explained by predictor variables on stress. Results To answer the research questions, a descriptive analysis was first con - ducted. Descriptive statistics are shown in Tables 2 to 4. While most mothers (72.1%) stated that their households had satisfacto - ry digital equipment for work and learning, almost a quarter (23%) did not have satisfactory space for work and learning for all household members (Table 2). Table 2 Conditions of Remote learning – Descriptive Data (N = 61) N % Satisfactory Workspace for All Household Members yes 44 72.1 no 14 23 missing data 3 4.9 Satisfactory Digital Equipment for All Household Members yes 54 88.5 no 6 9.8 missing data 1 1.6 As shown (Table 3), more than three-quarters (77%) of mothers of chil - dren with ADHD said that remote learning materials were not at all adapted to the children’s needs. Likewise, most mothers of students with ADHD (85.2%) said that teach - ers were sending teaching materials through available online services in proper measure. More than a third of mothers of children with ADHD (42.6%) said that there was no interactive teaching at all through the available online services, while roughly a third of mothers (34.4%) said that there was enough interactive teaching. c e p s Journal 9 More than a third of mothers of children with ADHD (42.6%) respond - ed that there was no individual contact with teachers. Most mothers of children with ADHD (77%) responded that they were more burdened with their child’s schoolwork than before the pandemic. Table 3 Method of Remote Learning and the Burden on Mothers with Schoolwork During Lockdown (N = 61) F % Accommodations of Teaching Materials not at all 47 77 insufficient 7 11.5 sufficient 7 11.5 Interactive Teaching in a Group through Certain Online Services not at all 26 42.6 insufficient 14 23 sufficient 21 34.4 Teaching Materials Sent through Certain Online Services not at all 1 1.6 insufficient 8 13.1 sufficient 52 85.2 Individual Online or Telephone Contact not at all 26 42.6 insufficient 15 24.6 sufficient 20 32.8 The Burden on Mothers with Schoolwork Before Isolation lower 1 1.6 equal 13 21.3 higher 47 77 Table 4 Descriptive Data of Predictor and Criteria Variables (N = 61) Mothers ADHD M SD Stress 22.77 4.62 Academic accommodations 1.34 0.68 The mother’s burden with the child’s schoolwork before isolation 2.75 0.47 Attention Symptoms (ADHD Children) 30.66 5.67 Hyperactivity Symptoms (ADHD Children) 15.95 4.50 Impulsivity Symptoms (ADHD Children) 11.49 3.37 The bivariate correlation coefficients between the stress scale and symp - toms of ADHD in their children, the degree of academic accommodations of online classes to the child’ s difficulties, and the burden on mothers with the child’ s schoolwork compared to the period before the lockdown are shown in Table 5. remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 10 Table 5 Correlation Coefficients among Predictors and Criteria Variable – Mothers of Children with ADHD (N = 67) Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Attention Symptoms 0.56** 0.51** 0.09 0.22 0.34** 2. Hyperactivity Symptoms 0.83** 0.04 0.08 0.23 3. Impulsivity Symptoms 0.00 0.07 0.18 4. Academic accommodations -0.10 0.32** 5. The Burden on Mothers with Schoolwork Before Isolation 6. Stress Table 6 Linear Regression Analysis on Stress in Mothers of a Child with ADHD (N = 61) Stress Collinearity Statistics B T tolerance VIF Variables 1 2 Gender 0.17 1.43 0.950 1.053 Attention Symptoms 0.31 2.17* 0.638 1.567 Hyperactivity Symptoms 0.17 0.80 0.280 3.572 Impulsivity Symptoms -0.17 -0.82 .295 3.572 Academic accommodations -0.35 -3.09** 0.970 1.031 The Burden on Mothers with Schoolwork Before Isolation 0.23 1.96* 0.924 1.083 R 0.55 R2 0.30** The overall multiple regression (Table 6) was statistically significant (R2 = 0.30, F (6.54) = 3.84, p < 0.01), which means that the linear combination of predictor variables accounted for 32% of the variance in stress. Attention symptoms, academic accommodations, and schoolwork bur - den have a statistically significant effect on mothers’ stress levels. c e p s Journal 11 Discussion The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the first lockdown and major changes for the entire society. The way of teaching had to be changed overnight, for which neither teachers, children, nor parents were prepared. Necessary changes caused by movement restrictions affected everyone, and it was to be expected that those changes would affect particularly vulnerable groups, such as children with ADHD and their parents. This research aimed to examine the spatial and technical preconditions and academic accommodations and the methods and quantity of implementation of various forms of teaching for children with ADHD during remote learning. The results suggest that not all students with ADHD started remote learning with the same conditions and in the same way. One-fifth of the stu - dents did not have satisfactory space for learning. As for the digital equipment necessary for remote learning, most students had the necessary equipment, al - though almost 10% did not. Those students are getting their education according to the Decision on the Regular Programme with Individualisation of Teaching Procedures. This means that they have the right to the accommodations of learning and teaching proce - dures, environments, and materials to suit their needs to achieve learning outcomes. Despite these guaranteed rights, more than three-quarters of mothers of children with ADHD (77%) said that remote learning materials were not adapted to the children’s needs. More than 40% of mothers said there were no interactive classes and no individual contact with teachers. This means that in the first few months of remote learning, the teaching did not occur synchronously but asynchro - nously for most students, meaning that teachers mostly sent learning materials and assignments to students. In such conditions, communicating with teach - ers is even more important, especially for students with disabilities. From the perspective of parents from the USA and Australia (Roy et al., 2022), it was precisely the lack of direct contact with teachers that was one of the biggest challenges during remote learning. If we consider the factors affecting the ef - ficiency of remote learning (Huang et al., 2020), it can be concluded that this research showed that at the beginning of remote learning during the pandemic was not effective, especially in relation to a reliable communication structure, the effectiveness of learning methods, appropriate learning tools for students with ADHD, and the organisation of learning in class. The second aim was to determine the mother’s burden with the child’s school tasks during the first lockdown. Most mothers in the study reported remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 12 a greater burden with their child’s schoolwork during the lockdown. We can assume that mothers’ increased engagement in their child’s school tasks was partly due to insufficient school support for their children. The third aim was to evaluate the degree of academic accommodation of teaching, the mother’s burden with the school tasks, and the severity of ADHD symptoms as possible predictive factors of the mother’s stress during the Cov - id-19 lockdown. The regression analysis showed that the symptoms of attention disorder, the mother’s burden with school tasks, and the degree of academic accommo - dations were significant predictors of maternal stress during the first lockdown. In other studies, parents of children with ADHD stated that there were not enough academic accommodations (Becker et al.; Ellala et al., 2021; Ter - mine et al., 2021). They also reported stress associated with greater engagement during remote learning, insufficient teaching accommodations, and a lack of attention in children (Becker et al., 2021; Y ousef et al., 2021). In this study, the effect of impulsivity and hyperactivity symptoms was insignificant. The symptoms of attention disorders have been shown to inten - sify in situations of increased demands and stress, and the results of other re - search also indicate more intense symptoms of attention disorders in children with ADHD during the pandemic (Sasaki et al., 2020). Since the symptoms of inattention are related to the difficulties of com - pleting school tasks and learning (less so for impulsivity and hyperactivity), it is possible that in a situation of decreased levels of teacher support and adapted materials, most requests of mothers at that time were related to supporting the child in completing the school tasks, which resulted in additional stress. The results of this study indicate that the schoolwork burden on mothers increased significantly during the lockdown, and it is a significant predictor of stress in addition to the child’s symptoms of inattention. This study has limitations. The research was carried out on a pertinent sample of mothers, and it is possible that the results would be different on a larger, representative sample. There is also no data on the impact of the sever - ity of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity symptoms on mothers’ stress before the Covid-19 lockdown; therefore, comparing the results obtained with results before the pandemic is impossible. The focus of this study was the pe - riod of the first lockdown, and it is expected that the quality of support for students would increase during the following years. Limitations imposed by the lockdown were also not the focus of this study, and some research showed that they could impact stress (Becker et al., 2020). c e p s Journal 13 Conclusion Schools were closed during the lockdown in Croatia, and classes switched to remote learning. Schools and teachers were not prepared for this form of teaching, and this situation caused many challenges for children with ADHD and their parents. This research aimed to examine the spatial and tech - nical preconditions, academic accommodations, and the methods and quantity of implementation of various forms of teaching for children with ADHD dur - ing remote learning. The second aim was to determine the mother’s burden with the child’s school tasks during the first lockdown. The third aim was to evaluate the degree of academic accommodation of teaching, the mother’s bur - den with the school tasks, and the severity of ADHD symptoms as possible predictive factors for mothers’ stress during the Covid-19 lockdown. This research showed that although most children had the spatial and technical preconditions for remote learning, there are still some children for whom this was not the case, which could make it difficult for them to cope with the new situation of remote learning. Support for children with ADHD in school is important in normal conditions but even more so during the stressful time of the first lockdown when no one was prepared for remote learning. Most mothers reported that their children did not receive enough sup - port during remote learning in the form of academic accommodations or indi - vidual contact with teachers. The results also showed that mothers were more burdened with their children’s schoolwork than before the pandemic. Those academic accommodations, symptoms of inattention in children and the moth - er’s burden with the child’s schoolwork were significant predictors of mothers’ stress during lockdown. This research suggests that more individual contact, academic accom - modations of resources, and more synchronous and less asynchronous teach - ing should be provided when implementing online classes. In addition, this research showed that the level of support during remote learning directly im - pacted mothers’ mental health, which should be considered when supporting children with ADHD and their families. Despite its limitations, this study could be a starting point for research on the long-term effects of education in Covid-19 conditions for both children with ADHD and their parents. remote learning and stress in mothers of students with attention deficit and ... 14 References American Psychological Association (APA) (2020). Stress in America 2020: Stress in the time of CO- VID-19 (Vol. 1). American Psychological Association. Washington, DC, USA. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2020/report Becker, S. P ., Breaux, R., Cusick, C. N., Dvorsky, M. R., Marsh, N. P ., Sciberras, E., & Langberg, J. M. (2020). 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Asian Journal of Psychiatry , 51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102077 Biographical note Daniela Cvitković, PhD, is a psychologist and associate professor at the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Za - greb. She teaches several courses at BA and MA level belonging to the field of special education. Her research focuses mainly on inclusion of students with disabilities, particularly learning disabilities and ADHD. Ana W agner Jakab, PhD, is an associate professor in the field of edu - cation and rehabilitation of people with disabilities at the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation, University of Zagreb in Croatia. Her research interests in - clude supporting the family system of people with disabilities, issues related to children and people with learning and multiple disabilities, and general promo - tion of integration of people with disabilities and their families. Jasmina Stošić, PhD, is an assistant professor at the ERF, University of Zagreb. Her main teaching and research interest is autism. She has been in - volved in several research projects focused on the development and evaluation of parent and teacher training for autism and family support. She is the chair of the Department for Autism Spectrum Disorder within ERF’s Centre for clinical practice and education which provides support for persons with autism and their families.