A child education specialist explains the importance of having an honest conversation with your kid about the pandemic.
Even as adults, it can be difficult to parse through the torrent of news and information about the coronavirus without feeling fear, anxiety, or discomfort. For those who are parents or caretakers of a young child, they don’t just have their own physical and mental health to worry about; they have kids to take care of, too. And those kids have a lot of questions.
As a result, parenting articles on navigating Covid-19 have popped up across the internet over the past few weeks and months, with titles like “How to talk to kids about coronavirus.” Vox has a piece on answering the seven big questions kids have about the pandemic, and our daily podcast Today, Explained will be releasing a kid-friendly episode that explains the coronavirus through an adventure quest format. (There is more information about the episode at the bottom of this article.)
The premise of these materials is simple: Most children have realized by now that something is happening in the world, and this phenomenon has led people to change their lifestyles and habits. It can be overwhelming for a parent to determine what to address and what to leave out, and how to honestly answer the questions a child might have. It can even be confusing whether you should talk to your child about it in the first place.
I spoke with Rachel Giannini, an early education specialist and teacher, about why it’s important to inform kids about the coronavirus and how beneficial it can be for their emotional wellbeing. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity…
To read the entire article from Vox, click https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/4/30/21233061/children-coronavirus-questions-child-specialist