After more than a year of isolation and empty schedules, some kids might be apprehensive or anxious about interacting with the outside world. Psychology experts provide tips to ease the transition.
Art can be a way to promote and support mental health in children, and understanding children’s experiences through the pandemic as seen through children’s art may help support them into the future.
Anxiety about starting school is common – among both children and parents. This can be for many reasons, but it’s useful to keep in mind exposure to our fears helps reduce anxiety.
Children struggle amidst adversity, but these tumultuous and highly emotional times make it a critical time to teach ‘resilience’ – giving kids coping skills.
The effects of economic stress on children are big. Parents’ anxiety about their financial situation is equivalent to the effect of a divorce, and is likely at play amid COVID-19.
Governments must ensure access to preschool for all children, many of whom will have had their learning and development affected by COVID-19. It will help children recover, as well as the economy.
We’ve got this: parents can build kids’ resiliency in by focussing on what’s going well, maintaining some predictability and order, modelling belief in their own abilities and caring for themselves.
Early intervention with reading challenges has very high success rates for supporting reading development, but it is much more difficult to improve reading skills in older students.
Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa