Experts suggest ways in which parents can help their children
Experts said that governments need to consider children’s condition while formulating policies. Representation pic
Paediatricians, child psychologists and behavioural experts are concerned about the long-term impact of the pandemic and the extended months of being cooped up indoors on children and young adults. If ignored now, the experts say, the emotional and psychological distress will affect the overall growth of children.
Schools and colleges across India have mostly been shut since March 2020, and various restrictions have been in place since then. Children under 18 years form 41 per cent of India’s population. Dr Subhash Hira, Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington-Seattle, is advisor to several UN and Indian health agencies. He said children are afraid about catching the virus, mainly because they think they can infect their grandparents, and this makes them feel guilty. “They are scared, nervous, lonely, sad, bored, and angry, but also feel safe, calm, and happy being with their families,” said Dr Hira.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Governments should consider children in their management of the current situation. There is a need to address the loss of formal teaching and hand-writing system, the social interaction with peers where over 50%-60% of learning takes place, loss of vacations and learning about nature, lack of competition in studies and sports, and the lack of challenges that make children strong.”
Dr. Shradha Maheshwari, Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon
Dr Hira said the impact on children will be felt differently among different population groups. “Children may feel confused and at loss with the current situation, leading to frustration and anxiety, which will only increase with the over exposure to mass and social media, especially among adolescents,” he said. “Some adults may struggle to explain the current situation to children, which will add to the frustration.”
Effects of lockdown
Developmental Behavioural Paediatrician Dr Samir H Dalwai said the pandemic is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, which has left a large number of people in a state of distress and uncertainty, leading to mild to serious behavioural changes. “Unfortunately, children in various age groups are slowly becoming a victim of the pandemic in a different way – forced quarantine and frequent lockdowns can induce acute panic, anxiety, obsessive behaviour and post-traumatic stress disorder, which cannot be ignored. We can divide the children in different age groups – 3 to 5 years, who depend most on parental care; 5 to 12 years, most of whom have lost months of holistic 360-degree psychological, emotional and physiological development that happens at school, and 12 years and above, who are showing various emotional behavioural changes, as they are missing on their peer-group interaction.”
Concerns over exams
It is also observed that many children aged above 15 are concerned about their exams and the uncertainty over the evaluation process. “All this leads to increased anxiety,” said Dr Dalwai. “With schools and colleges shut down, physical activity and exercise has stopped, and more time is spent on gadgets and late-night movies, which may result in sleep disturbances and weight gain. Subtle behavioural changes can be early signs of anxiety or depression. Appropriate professional mental health intervention is required.”
He also urged parents to avoid gloomy topics at home and instead aim to keep children cheery. He asked them not to allow their children to get hooked to devices. “For social interaction, Phones can be connected to their smart TVs and conversations with relatives can happen through the TV. This will help prevent the child from operating the mobile directly. Avoid discussing studies all the time, be available for the child and let the child discuss their problems. Avoid giving blurting out instant solutions. All the child needs is a listening ear.”
He said schools, whenever they reopen, should not rush to complete the syllabus, instead allow time for children to get back to normalcy.
Dr Samir H Dalwai, Developmental Behavioural Paediatrician
Risk of unhealthy habits
Nishit Kumar, managing director, Centre for Social and Behaviour Change Communication, said that children have sat glued to computer screens for more than a year, listening to teachers never trained for online education and parents have been forced to act as additional home teachers. “A complete absence of social interaction with peers means they will cultivate unhealthy habits and absorb biases that exist in their homes – like gender roles or family-related affiliations to caste, etc.”
He said setting clear study and play times is necessary and that schools could try having a period every day where children interact without teacher involvement. Also, evaluation and tests should be only via online methods. There is no question that online learning is here to stay. In the post-pandemic era, schools are likely to use a hybrid model of classroom plus online learning. They need to invest in online learning modules and software. This should incentivise schools to compete head on with edu-tech industry by adopting some of their good practices.”
Reaction to stress
Dr. Shradha Maheshwari, consultant paediatric neurosurgeon, said the pandemic will also impact psychosocial well-being and that constant communication is the key.
“Being keen observers, children will notice, absorb and react to the stress in their caregivers and community members, which unavoidably affects their well-being,” she said. “Each child behaves differently. Some may become silent while others may feel and express anger and hyperactivity. Caregivers need to be patient with children and understand that all emotions are valid emotions.”
Dr Shivangi Pawar, Consulting psychotherapist, said children are forgetting about school education programmes, and when schools reopen, they will be an unfamiliar and strange place to them.
“Children are at a greater risk of having a negative effect on their mental health,” she said. “Parents are worried about communicable disease transmission to their children. Children have started avoiding communication with others and becoming more dependent on their parents. There are certain warning signs that parents need to keep an eye on. They should keep a track of every activity of their children. At the least, they can make their children feel content, energised, and engaged by involving them in different activities. Children's interest in books can wane, so consider participating in reading activities with them that include stories, poetry, singing games, and other activities. The point is that we should do whatever we can to keep your children energised and physically active.”
Assessing the impact
Kumar further asked, “How can we assess the impact of this long stint of home-based online classrooms on children? Are they losing out in some ways?” He said that almost all children in schools up to Std XII are either Zoomers (Gen Z born post-millennials i.e. born post-1990 and Generation Alpha (born post-2010).
“Studies of Gen Z have shown that they have never lived a life without Google, they spend up to 40% of their time online and hang out with their friends virtually rather than physically, are less likely to drink or smoke, doing good is important to them. Would trust robots to make decisions for them, prefer watching eSports, unlikely to use physical bank branches, have an attention span shorter than that of Goldfish at eight seconds and are likely to emit 8x less carbon than Baby boomers,” Kumar explained.
While most such studies are done on citizens of the west, the trends are more than likely to be true across the world, including India.
Kumar added, “To understand the impact of virtual schools on children we need to consider the macro socio-economic changes taking place while assessing the impact. The issue is, what measures are available to gauge the impact. In the 80’s, economist Amartya Sen and philosopher Martha Nussbaum developed the Capability approach using three key principles and a framework of 10 capabilities to determine a measure of child well-being. Unlike traditional measures such as health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, material well-being etc, the Capability approach uses measures of: Life (capability to live long healthy life); Health (good health including reproductive health and nourishment); Bodily integrity (safety against abuse, violence and exploitation); Senses, Imagination and Thoughts (able to develop and articulate own self using education, literacy, maths and scientific knowledge); Emotions (able to build attachments to things and people, free of fear); Practical reason (able to understand good and have ability to plan own life); Affiliation (able to live with and show concern to others, able to engage in social interactions without discrimination); Other species (able to accept and live with nature, other animals and plants); Play (able to engage in recreational activities); and finally Control over one’s environment (able to make political choices, able to hold property, gain employment and exercise control without discrimination).”
“In this sense, schooling has the role of ensuring child well-being in a more comprehensive sense than just the 3 Rs. The acts associated with schooling: getting into a uniform, preparing books for the day, prayers at Assembly, the transfer of trust from parents to external Teachers, the physical interaction with children of all faiths and cultures, the discipline in classrooms of sitting in order, paying attention, competing with peers — both intellectually and physically, the acts of playing games to rules set, the interaction with the opposite gender, the exposure to different foods, languages and the acquiring of social as well as scientific knowledge via interactions, the affiliations via groups of classrooms and houses and the importance of teamwork. School also helps children to use up excess energy. All of these are the contributions of schools. Good schooling is in fact a good grounding in the methods of societal life itself. Schools also help build a lifetime of networks that help the child throughout life,” Kumar said.
It is also true that where a child has issues emanating from socio-economic conditions or deprivation or discrimination or household atmosphere, the school system may also enhance stress in such children.
Some ways to help your child
>> Engage in a creative interactive activity to find positive ways to express disturbing feelings like anger, fear and sorrow.>> Keep regular routines and schedules.
>> Keep regular routines and schedules.
>> If children are witness to violence at home, or if they are the target of violence, expert help is required.
>> Persuade children to divert their attention to diverse topics.
>> Listen to children, help them express their thoughts and feelings, and are encourage them to ask questions and answer them honestly.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
