Author: Sanjay
How is your child doing during this pandemic
In the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic, schools have confronted unprecedented challenges as they moved to quickly shift classes to an online format, provide equitable access for all students, support teachers’ and students’ educational needs, and make plans amidst great uncertainty. The pandemic itself has caused much worry, stress, and grief. These stressors can cause mental health challenges for anyone.
Today as children are stuck in the confines of their homes, the platform and the opportunity for social interaction among peers has come to a sudden halt. The huge age gap between a parent and a child does not warrant open discussions and playful activities in many situations. Earlier when at school, teachers with the help of typical indicators used to identify students experiencing such issues. As teachers are not able to meet in person, the children/students are struggling to a certain degree particularly with respect to emotional problems.
Today let’s talk about how as parents you can help identify and fill these gaps such that they don’t leave gaping holes in your child’s overall mental growth.
Universal screening to identify students in need
An established method to identify is through systematic screening. of the school population. For elementary school students, screening earlier involved teachers and students completing brief questionnaires regarding students’ emotions and classroom behaviors. At the middle and high school levels, screening primarily relies on student questionnaires regarding the frequency or severity of any emotional concerns.
Such questionnaires are easily available and can also be requested from the school. As parents, one can complete these questionnaires by their children and use scores to identify any underlying issue if any. This should be done on a periodic basis to ensure that the challenges are not enduring.
Screening is one part of the prevention and support process. What happens after identification?
Once you have identified your children as being at-risk for emotional difficulties, it is important for you to have a plan of action to connect your child to the right support services.
Ideally, this would involve a lot of attention and observation of your child’s activities at the initial stages to provide the right kind of external support.
At Eazy Tutors too, the group coaching classes and the one -one interactions facilitate an environment where the teachers many a times have identified such underlying issues among the students paving the way for resolution and growth of the students.
Parents, school teachers and home tutors are a part of a multi-tiered system of support and the interconnected cogs of a machine that needs to work together in coordination to balance and support your child. We at Eazy Tutors have identified this sync and periodically train our teachers to always ensure not only academic excellence but also overall growth and happiness of your child.