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4 Tips to Help Kids to Cope With COVID-19 Anxiety
We must teach children to embrace the power all of us have – and then use it to make choices that create better outcomes.
Aug 11, 2020
Aug 07, 2023
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We must teach children to embrace the power all of us have – and then use it to make choices that create better outcomes.
Steven Siegel, University of Southern California, The Conversation
The news coverage on COVID-19 is pervasive, persistent, and in my view as a professor of psychiatry, perilous. Sometimes it seems as though the pandemic is all we talk about.
As difficult as this experience is, it's easier for educated adults than it is for children. We adults look through a lens of life experience; our perspective helps get us through. Less clear is how “all-COVID-all-the-time" impacts children who take it in without that perspective. The issue is particularly important to consider as many kids prepare to go back to school and others get ready to learn online.
When children discern that adults around them don't fully understand something – or, in the case of COVID-19, that we can't completely guarantee their safety – they might feel a sense of helplessness. Insecurity and fear will rule. A child may begin to believe the world is a dangerous place, and that the only way to survive is to be defensive, or worse, aggressive.
As children go through this crisis, they don't have to be afraid. But as parents, we must lead the way. We must teach them to embrace the power all of us have – and then use it to make choices that create better outcomes.
As a practicing psychiatrist and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California, I can tell you this is possible, even during a pandemic. As parents, teachers and citizens, it is our responsibility to provide children with context, limit catastrophizing and emphasize responsibility and control.
Here are four skills you can start teaching your child today:
Years of training are required to understand how viruses form, mutate and spread. Decades of work are essential to obtain a deep understanding of disease mechanisms and how therapies work.
But only humility and trust are needed to accept that doctors and scientists, with those decades of training, are collectively working to solve the problem. If it takes time, it only means the problem is difficult and won't be worked out in a few days or weeks or even months. Tell your children that some things are not a quick fix, and that's okay.
Putting all this into practice is doable. Minimize discussions about COVID-19 to times when there's truly something to say. This will not be every day. When discussion takes place, emphasize that much can be done to reduce risk to ourselves and others. Make it clear that smart, capable, and compassionate people are working on the problem. Most of all, let them know this too shall pass, as long as we make smart choices and don't panic. Do this, and your child can develop valuable life skills that last, not just during this crisis, but for a lifetime.
Steven Siegel, Professor and Chair, Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern California
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.