40 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2020
FAMILY & EDUCATION
DISABLED LONG ISLANDERS FACE UNIQUE CHALLENGES
continued from page 39
Nicholas and Michael, 10 and 8 respectively,
now center their days around
Zoom calls with their school, the Elija
School in Levittown. While having
something structured to anchor them
has been a lifesaver, Young said, human
contact from teachers and classmates
has been impossible to replicate.
“Nothing is like seeing people, and holding
people, and hugging people,” Young
said. “But we’re doing the best we can.”
Compounding the issue, her sons have
had to go without seeing the people they
formed connections with at school, with
little to no explanation.
“One day they saw them and one day
they didn’t,” Young said. “I cannot imagine,
for my boys, what that was like.”
Young resists the idea that her sons are
getting “used to” the new normal, but
admits that there is far less trepidation
now than when their routine was first
interrupted roughly six weeks ago.
“If they were able to walk back into that
school they would be doing cartwheels,”
she said. “But I think the fear is less.
The more you do the same thing, there’s
a little less fear.”
To keep her kids — who are both nonverbal
— occupied without having
anywhere to go, Young and her husband
have taken them on drives through
Suffolk, and opened up their backyard
pool for them to play in after remote
learning, but there’s only so much they
can do while hunkered down.
“My husband and I have learned we’re
really not that exciting,” she said.
Young attributes what success her sons
have had during the pandemic to the
Elija School, which has not only given
students structure during the weekdays,
but has also provided parents
with training.
“If my boys were not in Elija, I don’t
know what this would look like,” she
said.
While Michael and Nicholas have
virtual learning to anchor their days,
structure has been harder to maintain
for adults with developmental
disabilities who are not in a school
program, according to Lynne Koufakis,
who chairs the board of Life’s Worc, a
Garden City-based nonprofit network
of group homes in New York City and
Long Island.
Organizations such as Life’s Worc have
found themselves on the front lines of
the COVID-19 pandemic, but for Koufakis,
who has two sons at home with
developmental disabilities, the obstacle
is twofold.
“It’s extremely challenging,” she said.
“It’s frustrating. It’s mentally and
physically exhausting.”
Many parents have had to rely on technology
to help get them through these
uncertain — and unstructured — times.
“The computer is great, and a curse at
the same time,” said Koufakis, whose
children’s caretakers still take them
out for exercise most days, but who are
stuck spending the rest of their time
inside in front of a screen. “They get
addicted.”
While sheltering in place has not been
easy for everyone, Young acknowledges
that those with developmental disabilities
are going through a completely
different trial of their own.
“I cannot imagine disabled people who
cannot relay or express the fear that
they have, the emotion that they have,”
she said.
Editor’s note: Life’s WORC was founded
by Victoria Schneps-Yunis, owner of
Schneps Media, the parent company of
the Long Island Press.
“The computer is great, and a curse at the same
time,” says Lynne Koufakis.
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