Dealing with adolescents at home during covid19 Pandemic.
School and college closure has significantly upset the lives
of students and their families and may lead to serious consequences on mental
and physical health of students specially the adolescents. Having an adolescent
restricted to home, during the lockdown might be exhaustive for both the
parents and the child, as adolescence period has its own difficulties and
challenges.
This lockdown period might lead to feelings of boredom,
loneliness, sadness, aggression, and irritability towards self, siblings and
other family members. They might use the internet and social websites for long
hours to escape their emotional changes (mood swings). The uncertainty about
exams and its impact on their career choices can worsen the stress due to the
covid19 Pandemic.
Let us look into ways which could help us to deal with
adolescents at home effectively:
·
The first challenge for us could be getting the
teen to act in accordance with the guidelines for social distancing. .They do
not want to listen to us. They want to meet their friends often. For teenagers friends are very important and bonding
with their peers is an essential developmental task.As adults we
need to acknowledge the fact that you know it’s frustrating for them to be cut
off from friends. It’s also important to help your teenagers
understand that no one really knows yet how the virus affects people of
different age groups. Listen to what they’re
feeling and validate those feelings. Be empathetic.
·
Encourage them to
interact with their friends over safe platforms, like telephone and social
networks, with time constraints. It is
important to make sure that adolescents are using social media in positive and
healthy ways. Set an example of how to shut
down devices on time. Children learn from what we do than say.
·
The homeschooling has added more burden on the
teachers and students, due to which both are feeling pressured. Teachers could
work on making study fun by conducting interactive and creative activities that
can be educational.
·
Teachers/Parents can also help them to
create realistic study schedules and supervise their work. Losing routines can
be a big source of stress to teenagers.
·
Most painful part of the crisis could be losing
joyful experiences like sports, co-curricular activities, roaming around the
school/college, movie theatres, attending classes and having fun in their own
way. We need to acknowledge their disappointments. Be understanding.
·
Talk about times when the world faced challenges in times of war, natural
calamities, and epidemics/pandemics earlier. Discuss on ways people dealt with
it. Tell them that resilience is something that is built, and
they are building it.
·
Help kids think what they need to do, to help
themselves feel better, and know this is a skill that will serve them well for
the rest of their life. Teach your kid that, we
can fix
our feelings through changing how we
talk to ourselves. Guide them to explore their strengths and develop
better coping mechanisms.
·
See to that your child gets adequate sleep and
eat healthy meals and play/exercise regularly. Use positive reinforcement (the
process of establishing a pattern of behaviour by offering reward when the
behaviour is exhibited) to tune them.
·
Last but
not least manage your own anxiety. Anxious parents are more likely to have anxious teenagers.
Before trying to support a fretful teenager, tense adults should take steps to
calm their own nerves. Being calm is also
contagious.
Swathi Priya.P
Counselling Psychologist
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