Post-pandemic child mental health crisis

Teachers are reporting that children returning to classes after almost 700 days of remote online learning and all too often no learning at all, have suffered great emotional and mental damage. This is manifesting by way of deficient socialisation skills, irritability, anxiety, fear, depression and digital addiction -Poornima Dilip, Johanna Preeti Shama, Nishiha David, Mini P. & Cynthia John With education institutions countrywide having reopened their campuses and resumed normative in-class teaching-learning after the world’s longest education lockdown, educators are beginning to assess the extent of damage suffered by the world’s largest population of children and youth during the 82-weeks closure of all education institutions countrywide. And the consensus of informed opinion is that school children from pre-primary to higher secondary have been hit hardest. Teachers are reporting that academic learning loss aside, children returning to classes after almost 700 days of remote online learning and all too often no learning at all, have also suffered great emotional and mental damage. This is manifesting by way of deficient socialisation skills, anger management difficulty, irritability, anxiety, fear, depression and digital addiction. A recent study titled, ‘School Closure and Management Practices During Coronavirus Outbreaks including Covid-19’ published in the UK-based Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, highlights that severe psychological conditions of increased irritability, inattention and clinging behaviour were discerned in all children irrespective of age group. “Research among parents revealed that children felt uncertain, fearful and isolated during current times. It was also shown that children experienced disturbed sleep, nightmares, poor appetite, agitation, inattention and separation-related anxiety.” Children from economically weaker sections and particularly whose parents’ health and jobs were impacted by the pandemic, displayed greater mental distress. Dr. Samir H. Dalwai, development behavioural pediatrician, New Horizons Child Development Centre, Mumbai, and treasurer of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, in an interview with EducationWorld (February) — an affiliate publication of ParentsWorld — warned that the “deleterious effect” on the mental health of India’s 260 million school-age children is greater than their academic learning loss. “Millions of children are showing signs of anxiety, depression, irritability, poor attention span, hyperactivity, sleep disturbance and post-traumatic stress disorder with younger children below six years showing regressive behaviour like clinging to parents, thumbsucking and bedwetting. We are facing a grave child mental health crisis,” says Dr. Dalwai. Against the backdrop of parents and educators confronted with unprecedented emotional and mental damage suffered by children during the past two pandemic years, in the pages following, ParentsWorld presents expert advice to enable parents to cope with five commonly reported mental health disorders afflicting children in the immediate aftermath of the most prolonged education lockdown in Indian history. 1. Social skills loss Pre-primary and primary age children develop social skills in interaction with peers and teachers in classrooms, playing spaces, during family gatherings and other social situations. But with pre-primaries and primary schools having suffered the most stringent lockdown, youngest children have been deprived of social and emotional learning (SEL) for two years. “My daughter is six-years-old and son three.…