Children are the product of the environment. In a special era, we can’t help but worry: New crown children will be affected physically and psychologically? ?
After all, adults often feel extremely anxious if you and I. So, will children who are extremely sensitive to the surrounding environment, whether they are infants or teenagers, face more serious "secondary disasters" ?
The epidemic will change the child's brain
"I'm stupid when I locked up at home, don't exercise or socialize, let alone the child?" When talking to parents about this survey, everyone knows the reason.
A longitudinal study in France showed that isolation leads to increased psychological stress among residents, and increased perceptual disorders, subclinical psychiatric symptoms and trust in pseudoscience. professor Peng Kaiping, a professor at Tsinghua University, also mentioned a survey he had done - the uncertainty of the epidemic, the large-scale suspension of social activities and the impact of the economy. Everyone was really unhappy.
There is a concept in psychology called mirror thinking. In a closed family environment, the fluctuations in parents' emotions directly reflect the changes in their children.
Dr. Yang Yanping of Shanghai Institute of Educational Sciences conducted surveys on more than 1,600 teenagers' families in 2020 and 2022, and found that long-term home stays has made the parent-child relationship more disharmonious.
In addition to the family environment, the impact of children also comes from the social environment. Nature journal published a paper from Brown University , showing that the brains of children in the new crown generation have been affected by the epidemic, and the longer the epidemic lasts, the more various problems arise in children. Research by Brown University Advanced Baby Imaging Lab found that compared with infants born before the epidemic, babies born during the epidemic were nearly two standard deviations lower in a series of developmental tests for IQ tests, and boys were more affected than girls, and major motor skills were most severely affected. The development of a child has nothing to do with whether the parents have been infected with the new crown, and it looks more like it is related to the overall environment of the epidemic.
The epidemic will affect the growth environment of children
has been going on for three years since the COVID-19 outbreak. The first batch of babies born with the outbreak are now almost four years old.
has been out of the epidemic for 3 years and has never traveled. The repeated epidemics are so rare that even going to the amusement park. The child has no companions to play with, and he doesn’t feel like he talks much. Children of the new crown generation have experienced an extraordinary pandemic and have been affected to varying degrees in every aspect of their lives, even challenging.
The epidemic will affect the physical and mental health of children
Ministry of Education of my country estimates that more than 220 million children and adolescents are restricted to their homes due to the epidemic. The sudden change in daily life patterns will affect the physical and mental health of children.
According to current research, the relatively significant effects are mainly concentrated in anxiety/depression, sleep problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), non-suicide self-injury/suicide (NSSI), and network behavior problems.
1, Anxiety/Depression
Anxiety and depression are often accompanied by stress, which are the most prominent mental problems. Several domestic and foreign studies have confirmed that anxiety, depression and stress among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic are at a high level, especially for children in isolation.
A study of isolated children and adolescents in Guiyang (6 to 15 years old) in my country showed that among the 1036 children, 112 (11.78%), 196 (18.92%) and 68 (6.56%) showed depression, anxiety and both, respectively. Among them, factors such as the child’s gender, parents’ education level, physical exercise, age, gender, and whether there is someone to accompany him on the working day are significantly related to depression/anxiety.
2. Sleep problems
Did your child have sleep problems during home isolation?
School closures, reduced outdoor activities caused by home isolation, excessive use of electronic screens, and unrestrained compliance with sleep schedules are considered to be several factors that may cause sleep problems. Some children's normal routine after staying at home will be disrupted, and their abundant energy will be nowhere to be released, and they may experience insomnia, active staying up late, and difficulty getting up.
Two studies in my country show that the prevalence of sleep disorders in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic were 32% and 56%, respectively, both higher than the pre-epidemic data.
3, Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
PTSD You should be familiar with some small setbacks in life, such as social problems encountered by children at home, learning difficulties encountered during online classes, and some major traumatic events, such as family members being infected, being isolated alone, and witnessing some harm that threatens themselves or others, etc., which may trigger stress responses, and children and adolescents are vulnerable to stress events.
Post-traumatic stress disorder will affect children's mental health and social functions, leading to negative changes in cognition and emotions, and at the same time negatively affecting the quality of life. A foreign review shows that quarantine life caused by the new crown may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents.
The epidemic will affect children's cognitive abilities
A study from Brown University in the United States showed that children born during the new crown epidemic have significantly decreased their abilities in terms of speech, exercise and overall cognition compared with children born before the epidemic.
Brown University research report pointed out that the IQ of infants and young children born before the appearance of coronavirus is 98.5~107.3. The IQ of children born during the coronavirus was 27 to 37 lower than that, a sharp drop of about 30%, accompanied by a significant decline in language, movement and overall cognitive abilities.
The study's lead author Sean Deoni, associate professor of pediatrics (research) at Brown University, said the biggest reason behind the decline in scores is probably the lack of stimulation and interaction at home.
Not only that, in January this year, a paper published in the famous journal JAMA studied 225 children born in 2020.
results show that compared with the data before the epidemic, fewer people can crawl and smile in the mirror. At the same time, their social skills and problem-solving abilities have declined.
In addition to this, some living habits are quietly changing:
1, language development and communication skills
html At the beginning of 3 years, data from a foreign hospital showed that the number of children who had language barriers needed to go to the hospital for treatment during the epidemic increased by nearly 30%.
0-5 years old is a critical period for the rapid development of children's language ability. The lockdown, ban on travel, and staying at home caused by the epidemic has caused children to be unable to play outside, or focus on electronic products and lose the opportunity to communicate with others, which has caused problems with language ability development.
2, Sensation and Social Development Ability
Language is not just listening and speaking, body language and interpretation of expressions are equally important.
The rich facial expressions are an important part of communication, but when a mask covers half of the face, no matter adults or children, it will affect the ability to judge other people's emotions and ideas.
For children, especially infants and young children, they are even more unable to understand their "faces". The nervous system has not developed well in perception. I also lack facial expressions in expressing feelings and emotions, and I missed the golden period of learning to express myself, and my social development was also affected.
3, physical and mental health
Due to the reduction of opportunities for outdoor activities, children cannot exercise a lot like before the new crown epidemic, resulting in a significant reduction in their ability to exercise.
Children lack the opportunity to exercise and exercise, and instead sit for a long time at home and maintain a certain posture for a long time, which can cause obesity, hindered movement and sensory development, and poor resistance to .At the same time, children have nowhere to vent their emotions, and their emotions are boring or dull, and their psychological problems will increase.
In order to get children back on track, parents should do this:
1, empathy follow
The so-called empathy attention is that parents consciously observe what their children are paying attention to. In other words, we will pay attention to whatever children pay attention to and respond to their behavior in a timely manner at the right time.
For example, when children play with building blocks, we can pay attention to what kind of building blocks are in their hands, and can respond at the right time, "The baby is holding a triangular building block, which is yellow."
2. Full communication
The so-called full communication is to communicate with children and use a large number of descriptive words when discussing with children.
For example, when we are cleaning housework, we can clean up while saying:
"I'll put the books on the sofa back into the bookcase, so that the house will look cleaner."
"Now I'll wash the cup on the coffee table so that the next time I drink water, it will be cleaner and hygienic."
When cleaning up, if we "nagged" with adults like this, he would probably go crazy. But for children, this kind of communication in the current context will make the child understand more vividly and concretely, and it will easily connect things. Understanding books should be placed in the bookcase, and cleaning used cups will be more hygienic.
3. Take turns to talk
and children take turns to participate in the conversation. The key is to open up questions and answers with children, rather than simply whether it is sunny or cloudy today? What shape is this? What color?
For example: Where does the water in the faucet come from? Why do we need to wash our hands frequently? For older children, we can guide them to discuss more about life and even social topics.
open-ended questions will easily make children start thinking and organizing language for expression.
4, maintain exercise
, combine children's interests and living conditions, choose their own activities, and carry out exercises for about 1 hour every day, such as dancing aerobics , turning hula hoops, kicking shuttlecock , etc.
Proper exercise can not only eliminate fatigue, increase the blood oxygen content in the brain, but also promote brain activity.
5. Do some housework
This is a good opportunity to cultivate children to do some housework within their ability, such as cleaning, tidying up rooms, washing and cooking, etc., to improve children's self-care ability and labor skills.
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Working from home, taking care of children, taking care of housework, and financial pressure. Sudden overload may put parents under high pressure for a long time. If parents often show anxiety, irritability and negative emotions, the child's mentality may also be affected.
Parents find out that their emotions are out of control, so they can calm down and calm down by themselves first, and try to convey negative emotions to their children as little as possible. Don’t yell or beat or scold them. Of course, no one is perfect. If you occasionally show negative emotions in front of your child, don’t blame yourself too much. Explain to your child clearly after calming down your mood. I believe your child will understand.
The material in this article comes from China Preschool Education Network and Parents Wisdom. If there is any infringement, please contact us to delete
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