How To Deal With Children’s Mental Health During Covid-19

How a child’s mental health is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

The public health measures that have been taken as steps to address the Covid-19 outbreak— social distancing and closures of businesses and schools— have had profound impacts on areas key to childhood development, such as socializing and education. A robust understanding of those impacts is key to mitigating their negative effects on children’s mental health.

Ways to help a child struggling with Covid-related anxiety

Anything one can do to keep routines and certain norms in place are healthy. Stability and consistency are key. This can mean scheduled calls with loved ones, ritualized meals, planned group exercise, and so forth.

There are other ways to help children deal with the stress and anxiety inherent to the pandemic.

1. One of the best things you can do is simply talk to your children about Covid-19 so that they can arrive at a better understanding of the reality of the situation.
2. Explaining facts about the virus, discussing steps they can take to avoid getting sick, and contextualizing the illness in a familiar way (eg. its symptoms are similar to that of the seasonal flu) can all be helpful ways to arrive at a better understanding and alleviate some anxiety.
3. Keeping tabs on the kind of social media your child consumes can also be a healthy way to avoid exposure to misinformation related to the virus and avoid unnecessary anxiety about the pandemic.

One of the most significant disruptions for children has been to education

Many children have been forced to adapt to online learning as a way to avoid potential exposure to the virus. All of us have had to adapt our lives in some capacity to the virtual realm, be it with work, our social lives, or otherwise.

Relating to your children and showing them how you, too, have had to adapt to the pandemic can be an opportunity at building a sense of solidarity, something which is healthy for young children.

Children respond well to routine, something which has been upset by the Covid-19 pandemic. A disruption to those routines can cause anxiety and negative emotions.

– Dr. Ben Malkin,
neuropsychdoctor.com

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