Research Article Volume 18 Issue 2 - 2026

Retrospective Study on the Development of Children with Specific Learning Disorders during the Pandemic (COVID-19) in Greek Primary School Students

Katerina Sakellariou1*, Ch Kalatzis2 and M Konstantinidi3

1Laboratory Teaching Faculty in Psychology, Psychologist, Department of Child Psychiatry, Community Mental Health Center Byron-Kaisariani, Department of Medicine, 1st Psychiatric Clinic, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

12Special Education Teacher, Inter-department Post Graduate Program Pedagogy through Innovative Technologies and Biomedical approaches, Faculty of Health and Caring Professions Department of Biomedical Sciences Faculty of Administrative, Financial and Social Sciences Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece

13Practicing Psychologist, MSc Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Psychiatry, Department of Child Psychiatry, Community Mental Health Center Byron-Kaisariani, Department of Medicine, 1st Psychiatric Clinic, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

*Corresponding Author: Katerina Sakellariou, Laboratory Teaching Faculty in Psychology, Psychologist, Department of Child Psychiatry, Community Mental Health Center Byron-Kaisariani, Department of Medicine, 1st Psychiatric Clinic, Eginitio Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
Received: January 05, 2026; Published: January 22, 2026



This is a retrospective research project, the idea of which was born by the observation of the clinical cases, which were related to the diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorders. Key to the fruition of this work was the interest to object regarded the impact of e-learning education on children with Specific Learning Disorders -most of them pupils attending primary school- in the covid-19 era.

More specifically, the aim of the research is to study the effects of e-learning education, implemented during the pandemic period, on the learning of primary schools’ children with a diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorders. The material of the study came from the examinations of these children during their treatment and observation by the Child and Adolescent Service of the Byron-Kaisariani Community Mental Health Centre in the academic years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The total sample concerns 140 children with "Specific Learning Disorders", specifically 90 boys (64.3%) and 50 girls (35.7%). The above sample was divided into two subgroups, the first represents children (n = 73) who were assessed at the service during the academic years 2019-2021 (COVID-19 period) and who were attending e-learning education (Webex), while the second was the control group (n = 67) that had been assessed at the service before the pandemic and had been taught exclusively through face-to-face education (academic years 2017-2019). The main variable in this research was the teaching method, either "e-learning" or "face-to-face" education, while the individual variables assessed on the basis of this teaching were: "reading" (more specifically "rate"), "text comprehension", "vocabulary”, "spontaneous written expression (spelling errors)”, and "spatiotemporal concepts (days and months).

 Keywords: Specific Learning Disorders; e-Learning Education; Face to Face Education; Pandemic; Reading Rate; Spelling Errors; Spontaneous Written Expression; Primary Education

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Katerina Sakellariou., et al. “Retrospective Study on the Development of Children with Specific Learning Disorders during the Pandemic (COVID-19) in Greek Primary School Students”. EC Neurology  18.2 (2026): 01-10.