Supporting Children’s Mental Health During COVID-19
By: Victoria Lord, Paediatric Occupational Therapist
It’s not adults who are feeling the pressure of COVID-19, some children can experience anxiety, fear and confusion as they adjust to their new routines.
Here are some strategies to help support our kids during these challenging times.
1. Try and incorporate calm down strategies throughout the day
Engaging the breath can be a really nice way to help do this. When our exhale is a few seconds longer than our inhale we turn on our parasympathetic nervous system which helps encourage our body into “rest and digest” as opposed to fight/flight/freeze.
A nice way to do this with younger children is “bubble monsters”.
For older children 5 finger breathings is a nice breathing activity that requires no equipment.
2. Tactile play
Tactile play is a great way to help ground kids, bringing their attention to their hands and the here and now.
There are lots of different tactile mediums that you can explore and use as part of their learning. Try creating words out of Play Doh or writing letters in shaving cream.
Hide toys in rice or beans and see if children can find them with their eyes closed.
Have a kinetic sandcastle building competition.
3. Include a “gratitude” practise as part of your day.
Explain to kids that gratitude means being “thankful” for something. Although there are lots of things going on in the world at the moment we still have a lot to be thankful for in our lives.
A nice idea is to make a “gratitude stone” by painting a rock. You could use this as a family as part of your daily routine for example at the dinner table. Pass the rock around to each family member and each share something that you are grateful for that day.
4. Try and reduce screen-time
During this time with kids being inside it’s really hard to cut down on screen-time but it’s so important in supporting their mental health that they have as little screen-time as possible. If you can’t cut screen-time out, try and ensure that it’s active rather than passive. For example, following a dance tutorial, craft video or yoga story.
5. Routine
As a family decide upon a routine and create a visual timetable of it to put on the fridge or somewhere that everyone can see it. Try and stick to your routine.
6. Try and maintain a healthy lifestyle
Help your children eat a range of health foods, get enough sleep and try and get as much exercise as they can. If you live in a small space this may mean getting creative with how they can expel some energy. There are lots of great ideas online but my favourite are “freeze dances”, balloon volleyball (in different body positions) and doing a book worm workout (e.g. each time a word is mentioned in the book for example “cat” you have to do 5 jumping jacks).