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HOW TO TA L K T O Y O U R KIDS ABOUT COVID-19 A pandemic is new territory for adults and kids alike. WO R DS : CO URT NEY COLLEN
To help you talk to your kids about COVID-19, Joseph Segeleon, MD, a critical care pediatrician at Sanford Children’s, answers some frequently asked questions on the topic. W ha t a d vice d o you have for p a rent s rig ht now? The role for parents right now is to be reassuring, to be a listening ear and to make sure children feel safe. Kids pick up on parental anxiety, anger and impatience. They know when we’re afraid. Control your anxiety by concentrating on what we know, keeping your family safe and how you can cope in a healthy manner. Kids look to us for reassurance that, yes, we’ll do everything we can to keep them safe.
How imp or ta nt is keep i ng a n op en d ia log ue with our k i d s ? It’s very important right now to be accessible to your kids, to be available for questions and to acknowledge that they may be anxious or fearful. Be reassuring, confident and comfortable when you address their concerns because they may have heard other things about what’s going on, particularly if they’re older children.
How d o we ta lk to old er child ren a b out COV I D- 19? Be aware of where your child is getting their information and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get your information from the same sources. Not everything online is true, so it’s really important to stick with facts and science. For example, we know there wasn’t a person or group of people who caused this virus. Especially with older kids, they may have a lot of questions, and let’s face it, we have a lot of questions about this current situation too.
How d o we a p p roa ch the s ub jec t b a sed on child ren’s a g es ? It’s very important that we acknowledge the developmental difference between children. For a 5-year-old who knows about germs, explain it to them in the same way you would about how we get colds and runny noses. But for an adolescent, you can go into the details about where this virus came from and what we know about it. Compare and contrast it to something like the flu, which a lot of kids know about.
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:: areawomanmagazine.com