As schools reopened in-person, remote, and a combination of the two, CATCH gathered a pediatrician, a psychologist, and an educational consultant to answer questions from parents and caregivers about managing the school year in the midst of a pandemic. Keep reading to learn their advice on the most pressing concerns.
Focusing on gratitude, radically accepting our current reality, and managing masks are some of the actionable strategies a panel of experts offered during the recent CATCH webinar: Unmasking the School Year: Your Questions Answered, Your Fears Addressed.
CATCH Board Member and licensed clinical psychologist Lisa Novak, PsyD, Illuminate Psychological Assessments, LLC, moderated the September 16, 2020 discussion designed to help parents and caregivers handle the challenges of students attending class in a variety of formats due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Because the previous school year derailed with no warning and this year is off to an unusual start, many parents are concerned their children are experiencing an academic regression. Margot Andersen, MSW, educational consultant, Creating Resilience, advised parents to remember that the effects of the pandemic are universal. “Everybody is way behind,” she said, adding that unless your child has lost a great deal of skill and knowledge, there’s no reason to be concerned.
Similarly, parents and caregivers are worried about their children’s social skills suffering due to social distancing and remote learning. Rachel Riley Fancher, PsyD, Fancher Psychology, offered some reassurance. “We have to radically accept that right now this is what’s happening, but children are incredibly resilient,” she said, adding, “They can adapt and they find ways. We’re social beings, and that’s an innate drive so it’s not something that’s going to be lost, and they’re not going to forget how to do things socially.”
Of course, keeping children safe is everyone’s top priority, and Jessica Rappaport, MD, pediatrician, Rappaport Pediatrics, provided a range of medical advice. She advised everyone to get a flu shot as soon as possible and certainly by the end of October. Since flu symptoms and COVID symptoms are similar, she predicted there will be more testing this year as it’s truly the only way to distinguish between the two.
She also offered quite a bit of advice about masks:
- Masks should be triple-layer.
- Choose a mask that fits your child and is comfortable for them.
- If it gets wet because your child is chewing on it, change it.
- Wash masks every time they are used.
- Disposable masks are designed for one-time use, but if you need to reuse it, remove it carefully by only touching the straps, and store it in a paper bag until the next use.
Video games and screen time also top the list of parental concerns, especially for remote learners who are online all day at school and then use technology to socialize. Dr. Fancher said there’s no magic number for how much screen time you should allow your child. She said it’s more important to consider what else is in their life and whether there’s balance. Are they moving their bodies? Are they reading a book? Socializing with friends and family? “If you notice they are starting to withdraw or screens are starting to take over, that’s usually when there is cause for concern,” she said.
Along with all of these immediate worries, caregivers are also asking about the long-term impact of the pandemic. Dr. Fancher acknowledged that while there’s no data to provide guidance on this question because we are in a unique situation, she said the longer this goes on, the less acute the experience and the more we are all learning to adapt which is certainly a critical life-long skill.
In addition, educational consultant Andersen explained the benefit of Post Traumatic Growth: “The long-term piece of it is that [our children] grow, find different meaning in life, their skill sets are changed, and their whole sense of outlook on life is different, better, and changed. That’s just a more hopeful, more positive way to look at the stress that our kids and we are going through and that we may emerge as different, better.”
Regardless of the length of this pandemic, the panelists provided ideas on how to cultivate special moments to build positive memories from this time. “The small daily things add up,” said Dr. Rappaport, “finding the joy in the small day-to-day can help in the long run.”
Andersen explained the value of taking time to express gratitude and suggested families make it part of their daily interaction by asking each family member to share three things for which they are grateful when sitting together at the dinner table. “What you are asking the brain to do, research has shown, is that you are cataloging the last 24 hours, and you are searching for the good in the day,” she said, “When you savor the good and you actually seek it, it creates a sense of positivity. That may be a skill they can take away and actually remember as adults.”
Other topics covered include:
- How much risk are our children at due to exposure to increased cleaning chemicals?
- How do we support children with special needs?
- How much should parents share their own emotions with their children?
For answers to these questions and more from our panelists, watch the recording of Unmasking the School Year on the CATCH YouTube Channel.
Thank you to our panelists for sharing their insight and expertise:
Margot Andersen, MSW, Educational Consultant, Creating Resilience
Rachel Riley Fancher, PsyD, Psychologist, Fancher Psychology
Jessica Rappaport, MD, Pediatrician, Rappaport Pediatrics
