Advice for parents on a healthy epidemic period for children

Asst. Prof. Dr. Elif Bozcan, academic staff from the Department of Preschool Teacher Education of Faculty of Education, Cyprus International University (CIU) stated that children have difficulties in understanding and adapting such a process full of uncertainties due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and noted that the epidemic may cause some negative behaviors in children.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bozcan underlined that children aged between 3 to 6 years may exhibit undesirable behaviors such as regression, reluctance, eating disorders, diarrhea or constipation, excessive tendency to adhere to the parent, fear, not wanting to be alone, sleeping problems, wetting, and grunting. Similarly, children of 6-11 years of age may show symptoms such as exaggerated reactions or non-responsiveness, restlessness, aggression, excessive adhesion to parents, sleeping problems, attention and focus problems, regression behaviors, and developing concerns that parents may die.

Emphasizing that some steps can be taken at home to overcome this troubled period with fewer problems, Bozcan also pointed out that the first step is to give information to the child through simple and short explanations about the epidemic.

It was mentioned that parents should avoid saying that the virus will not infect anyone they know, and that children should be protected from exaggerated, distorted and anxious news on television or the social media.

Underlining the importance of focusing on the positive aspects of closedown of the schools, Bozcan said that children should be kept in touch with relatives, teachers, and friends, even if it is from a distance.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bozcan emphasized the importance of creating a new “home order” at home, and activities that family members can participate with pleasure can be organized such as hide and seek, crib, chair grab, treasure-detective game, puzzle, cutting materials, sticking, painting, cup games, making puppets from socks, making masks from cardboard, sewing with leftover fabrics, designing baby items from old clothes, and dramatizing fairy tales.

It was also suggested to create a “quarantine board” or “quarantine corner” where children can express what they are experiencing and children who can read and write can be encouraged to keep a diary.

Asst. Prof. Dr. Bozcan explained that the World Health Organization has prepared and published a storybook for children to understand the coronavirus epidemic in 36 different languages, including Turkish that can be reached via the internet from (https://interagencystandingcommittee.org).