Monitor media consumption and alleviate children’s stress, say experts

According to Dr Poongodi Bala, consultant child psychiatrist, children can suffer from anxiety, depression, worry about death, and mild obsessive-compulsive disorder. “As adults, we are able to express our frustrations easily about the situation we are in. For children, they are unable to express that properly, and thus they would express it by being irritable or by crying a lot. Parents must chime in to help prevent this from occurring,” she said.

For Akshaya Shankar, her six-year-old daughter began showing these symptoms a week into the shutdown. “I didn’t realise that she was getting frustrated too. Children usually go to school and see their friends, but that has all been taken away. My daughter was supposed to take part in a play in school, but then the shutdown occurred. So, to make her feel better, everybody in the house took up the other roles and let her act it out at home to make her feel better,” said the 34-year-old.

But can children understand the severity of the situation? Well, Dr Bala explained that the constant media coverage does affect the children, and it is the responsibility of the parents to ensure that media consumption is monitored.

“Coronavirus is a disease and people fall ill if they touch each other. Schools are closed because of that. Doctors are treating the sick people and once they get better, we will be able to go to school again. Until then, we must stay at home and do our schoolwork at home,” said Sai Vignesh, a Class 6 student, when asked to explain what the disease was.

To alleviate any concerns surrounding the disease, parents must focus on how the virus can be combated and not focus on deaths, as this causes more worries in a child’s mind. “I told my daughter that things will get better, and that things might not be exactly the same as before. I realised that as I told her this, I started believing it too, and began coping better,” said Shankar.