I heard this morning that 24% of children ages 1-5 and 37% of children 6-17 are experiencing mental health problems. Suicide is the #1 killer of our children right now not Covid-19! We have a pandemic of mental health and fear is the disease.
Parents are afraid:
Parents are afraid to let children play outside.
Parents are afraid their children will contract Covid.
Parents are afraid their children will bring home Covid to another family member.
And Parents are afraid of the guilt they would feel if any of this came true.
But science has proven children are the LEAST at risk of contracting or spreading Covid!
So, while you are locking your children up in their rooms forcing them to sit hour-on-end in front of a computer, refusing to let them go outside or take a break until they are done, their childhood is slipping away. More and more every day parents are feeling there is NOTHING they can do to stop it. We are watching our children emotionally bleed to death in pools of their parent's fear. This madness has got to stop!
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Winston S. Churchill
We are living according to the rules and manipulations of others and parents and children both have lost hope. By the limitations that our perceptions set upon us we have become an entire society of victims. The bottom line - We are volunteering to be prisoners of this fear and we are killing our own children! Parents must become more proactive in finding solutions for their children. In therapy these are some of the suggestions I give parents to enable them and bring hope home to their kids.
These are 3 things parents can do now to improve their child's home learning experience:
1. Individual Educational Plan
Prior to Covid, when a child had a learning disability or fell behind in school a parent could request their child be tested and if they qualified they could receive an Individual Educational Plan (IEP). The IEP would be tailored to the need of the student and they would receive additional services and assistance so they could be become successful in school. With 40% of students failing since being forced to online studies, most would not meet the criteria for an IEP. But parents, you can create your child's own individual learning plan in your home. Not everyone learns the same way, yet through the current system there is only one way to learn, visually and audibly through the internet. For someone like me (ADD) and who is a tactile learner (I must do it, not just see or hear it), distance learning is extremely difficult. For myself, when I did my undergraduate studies online I was a B-C student. When I had in classroom courses for my Masters program, I received A's. The thought of sitting in front of a computer for 6-9 hours a day attempting to retain anything makes me sick. I have great empathy for students today and compassion for the parent who feels lost.
2. Turn off the computers, the TV, heck, shut down your internet completely.
Go have fun with your child and take breaks often. If you see your child is getting frustrated pull them out of class. If they need nourishment, give them a non-sugar snack. Brain power requires nourishment and lots and lots of water. If you are not providing these things for your children, they may be brain-starved. Once school is over, turn off the Internet. Engage with them, they need face-to-face interaction and playtime. Their brains are tired from work, don't let more technology be their playtime as well.
2. Stop the fear
Parents don't realize they have both power and control in their home. Parents are not teachers and when they were forced to learn how to become a trained educator overnight, they became anxious and fearful. They worried that they didn't have the education themselves (or learned it so long ago they forgot it), and fearful that they would fail their child. All this anxiety and fear has been absorbed by your children because that's all they hear from you. The boogie man has returned full force and he's YOU! Get fear out of your house, out of your heads, and out of your speech.
Your child's mental health is more important than a report card. When you take charge of your home, your children will feel protected. When you stand up for them, they will know you care. When you put their needs above the needs of others, you give them hope.
Live life don't nearly survive it.
That would be POWER LIVING.