How parents can help young children adjust to post-lockdown life
Delays in re-opening schools after lockdown left the Children’s Commissioner for England warning that most children will have missed nearly six months of formal education, “the biggest disruption since the Second World War”. And charities including Save The Children say that almost one in four young people living under Covid-19 related restrictions were dealing with feelings of anxiety; many were “at risk of lasting psychological distress”.
Priory experts counselling young children agree that the long period of isolation has had a significant impact on young people’s mental health. But play has great therapeutic value, they say, in enabling children to adapt to changes caused by the pandemic, and in helping facilitate a fresh understanding of sharing, being considerate to others, and looking after people – all of which will be helpful before they return to school in September.
Dr Hayley Van Zwanenberg, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Priory’s Wellbeing Centre in Oxford, said; “I am seeing more and more young people becoming very low in mood; they feel their plans for the summer cannot come to fruition and that they have little to look forward to. They worry they may have lost friendships and got behind with school work. Others are finding their anxiety is increasing about socialising, and being outside their house and leaving family members indoors.”
She says that “positively encouraging” children to play and exercise together will bring significant developmental benefits; “For young children, time with their friends is really important; they need to be developing their social skills and playing is a way of them tackling difficult times. For example, when they play they can become superheroes and feel invincible.
“Play has so many benefits for young people, including brain development, language development, and helping them cope with stress, and it helps them with their physical development as obviously they jump and run around.”
Parents can help their children get the most out of play this summer by making sure it includes a variety of different types of activity, and by taking a proactive part in it. Dr van Zwanenberg has five top tips for using play to help children re-adjust to life after lockdown:
1. “Children learn lots from role-playing with adults or other children. Parents can role play certain scenarios with their children, to teach them new social skills they might not have practiced for a while, for example; ‘Let’s pretend we are friends going to play at the playground and there is only one swing and we both want to go on it’. They can ‘role play’ how the child should respond and share. This sort of role playing can teach children so much. They have to solve a problem and think about what is right and wrong and fair, and communicate all this.
2. “Parents can role-play scenarios that are going to be different now than when they were pre-lockdown, for example going to the supermarket and having to walk one way around it and leave space between themselves and others in the queue. It will then not be so confusing for children when they experience this.
3. “Buy ‘social story’ books. These are often used for young people on the autistic spectrum. They describe common social scenarios young people might find themselves in, and how they should be handled. They lead to discussion and could be helpful for young people if parents feel they will struggle with a return to normal social situations or changed ones.
4. “Turn taking is an important part of play for young children and often young people find this hard. I would suggest playing family games that involve turn taking so young people get used to coping with this again.
5. “’Emotion reading’ games can be fun and useful game to play with your child. Write down an emotion on a piece of paper and take it in turns to act them out with body language and facial expressions. Often difficulties in the playground occur due to young people misreading each other’s body language.”
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Lockdown is easing. Are you still being prevented from seeing your children?
Children are coming out of lockdown quids-in
It is an adjustment for the kids, but my daughter managed back to preschool without many issues
This article is so informative. I hadn’t thought of buying books to help deal with situations like this. Thanks
Great tips x
It defintley has been an adjustment for my kids but they have coped pretty well thankyou for the advice
We were really lucky. The kids seemed to adjust quite well and carried on as if lockdown had never happened!
Really useful post, my grandson is nervous about going back to school, great tips to put him at ease about it
We’ve been lucky – were going to find it strange going back to school
great post
Our Son seemed to adjust ok, better than us adults at times. He kept in close contact with his school and friends, which I think helped a lot
Interesting post – my kids seem to have adjusted quite well
Such useful tips. I have found my kids to be very resillient. They have been back to school this week and have done so well with settling back into the swing of things. They are awesome.
Useful tips. My granddaughter is an only child, so she had no-one to play with except her parents. I think it has actually made her more self-reliant, as she learned to entertain herself. That said, she was really happy to go back to school and see her friends.
So helpful thanks
My daughter started big girl school this week and she has adjusted very well
Useful info I really think children can adapt and adjust better than most adults my two where chomping at the bit to get back with their friends
Kids thrilled to be back at school with fun new teachers.
My grandson has adjusted pretty well I only wish we could have those hugs and cuddles he misses those
some great tips here , i think the hardest part for the kids was going back to school but they have soon settled
thanks for the tips, it didn’t seem to affect my kids which i’m quite glad of xx
I think I’ve been quite lucky with my youngest, it was his 8 year old sister who struggled with everything the most though. All three of my children have dealt well with the return to school well thankfully.
My niece has struggled with starting at a new high school. She went to a very small primary school, didn’t get to say goodbye to her friends and teachers and knows no one at her new school. Kids can be adat I don’t think we can ignore the impact lockdown has had on them and everyone else.
A really useful post. It’s so easy to focus on our own low feelings that we could fail to pay attention to the little ones.
Definitely consistency and routine
Good read got some good tips thankyou,it can be hard I have 3 boys
It’s so sad how children have been affected, my autistic son was very badly affected from the first lockdown. We got a place in his school this time round due to his vulnerability but we are still trying to put the pieces back from the first lockdown. It is going to take a long time to get him back to an emotionally better place that he was in before the first lockdown.
Such a useless and important post. We have all been in our own little worlds/bubbles the social aspects coming out of this is going to be so tricky. We’ve been talking lots about sharing, taking turns and being supportive to each other. I think we will look at social stories as that sounds interesting.
this is a great post, very interesting
Some good ideas
Some great ideas, I’m hoping that we don’t have too many problems but am making sure to research and stay on top just incase