Plus, what parents need to do to help their kids cope.
and why we need to stay home for a little while to keep our loved ones safe. Parents were told to keep dialogue open and positive and to check in periodically to make sure kids were coping effectively. It's guidance similar to what a pediatric psychologist would advise after a child experiences a traumatic event.
If kids were undergoing a fluid, ever-changing crisis with no other red flags, that'd be hard enough to manage, but Diaz explained how a few other factors have made this situation more alarming from a mental health standpoint. "Deal with one's own anxiety before speaking with children," Denise Daniels, RN, a nurse and child development expert who created the
"Children process information over time and may be better able to understand the current situation differently than they did one or two weeks ago."Some parents prefer not to talk about coronavirus whatsoever while others can think of nothing else to discuss. The most important point here is that neither matters compared to how your child wishes to connect on the subject matter.
Even if you don't have full confidence that your family is going to be safe — perhaps you are an essential worker and must leave the house every day or maybe you have a grandparent or someone with a compromised immune system living with you — experts agree that in this climate, reinforcing to our kids that they are safe is crucial to their emotional stability.
In that instance, the child has likely developed a"coping response" to the external stressor, and parents should minimize the intensity of their message when having kids follow hygiene guidelines. "Children often work through challenging feelings through play," Dragonette said."Don't be alarmed if children reenact the same fears through play over and over. Research has consistently shown that this is one way children process traumatic events. It could be helpful to encourage imaginative play around any aspect of the current crisis that parents are concerned about.
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