Maybe in this era when COVID-19 is flying all over the sky?

It can be said that every parent should know about the "secondary disasters" in the COVID-19 era!

Children are the product of the environment. In a special era, we can't help worrying: Will children in COVID-19 be affected physically and psychologically?

After all, adults like you and me often feel extremely anxious, so will children who are extremely sensitive to their surroundings, whether infants or teenagers, face more serious "secondary disasters"?

The epidemic will change the child's brain.

"If I stay at home, don't exercise, don't socialize, I will be stupid, let alone children?" Talk to parents about this survey, and everyone knows why.

A longitudinal study in France shows that isolation will lead to increased psychological stress of residents, as well as cognitive impairment, subclinical mental symptoms and trust in pseudoscience. When Peng Kaiping, a professor from Tsinghua University, was interviewed by Phoenix Satellite TV Wu Xiaoli, he also mentioned a survey he had done-the uncertainty of epidemic situation, the large-scale suspension of social activities and the impact on the economy. Everyone is very unhappy.

There is a concept in psychology called mirror thinking. In a closed family environment, the fluctuation of parents' emotions directly reflects the changes of children.

In 2020 and 2022, Dr. Yang Yanping from Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences conducted a survey of more than 600 adolescent families, and found that staying at home for a long time would make the parent-child relationship more and more disharmonious.

In addition to the family environment, the impact on children also comes from the social environment. A paper published by Brown University in Nature shows that children's brains in COVID-19 are affected by the epidemic, and the longer the epidemic lasts, the more problems children have. A study by Brown University's Advanced Infant Imaging Laboratory found that compared with the infants born before the epidemic, the infants born during the epidemic were nearly two standard deviations lower in a series of IQ tests, and boys were more affected than girls, and the big motor skills were the most seriously affected. Children's development has nothing to do with whether their parents are infected with COVID-19, but seems to have more to do with the general environment of the epidemic.

The epidemic will affect children's growing environment.

It has been three years since the epidemic in COVID-19, and the first batch of babies born with the epidemic are now almost four years old.

It's been three years since the epidemic, and I haven't traveled yet. Repeated outbreaks, even going to the playground is pitiful. Children have no companions to play with and feel that they don't talk much. The children of COVID-19's generation have experienced an extraordinary epidemic period, and they have been affected to varying degrees and even challenged in all aspects of their lives.

The epidemic will affect children's physical and mental health.

China's Ministry of Education estimates that more than 220 million children and adolescents are confined to their homes because of the epidemic. Can't go to school, outdoor activities are reduced, and social interaction is restricted. These sudden changes in daily life patterns will affect children's physical and mental health.

According to the current research, the obvious effects mainly focus on anxiety/depression, sleep problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), non-suicidal self-injury/suicide (NSSI), network behavior problems and so on.

1, anxiety/depression

Anxiety and depression are often accompanied by stress and are the most prominent mental problems. Many studies at home and abroad confirmed that during the COVID-19 epidemic, the anxiety, depression and stress of children and adolescents were at a high level, especially isolated children.

A study on isolated children and adolescents (6 ~ 15 years old) in Guiyang City shows that among 1036 children,112 (1.78%) and/kloc-0. Among them, children's gender, parents' educational level, physical exercise, age, gender, and whether they are accompanied on weekdays are significantly related to depression/anxiety.

2. Sleep problems

Did your child have any sleep problems during family isolation?

Suspension from school, reduced outdoor activities caused by family isolation, too long use of electronic screens, and not being bound to follow the sleep schedule are considered to be several factors that may lead to sleep problems. Some children's normal work and rest will be disrupted after staying at home, and there is nowhere to release their abundant energy. There may be insomnia, active staying up late, and difficulty getting up.

Two studies in China showed that the prevalence of sleep disorders in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 epidemic was 32% and 56%, respectively, which were higher than the data before the epidemic.

3. Posttraumatic stress disorder

Everyone should be familiar with PTSD. Small setbacks in life, such as children's social problems at home, learning difficulties in online classes, some major traumatic events, such as family members being infected, being isolated, and witnessing some harmful events that threaten themselves or others, may trigger stress reactions. Children and adolescents are vulnerable groups in stress events.

Post-traumatic stress disorder will affect children's mental health and social function, lead to negative changes in cognition and emotion, and have a negative impact on the quality of life. A review abroad shows that the isolated life caused by COVID-19 may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents.

The epidemic will affect children's cognitive ability.

A study by Brown University in the United States shows that children born during the COVID-19 epidemic have significantly decreased their abilities in speech, movement and overall cognition compared with those born before the epidemic.

According to the research report of Brown University in the United States, the IQ of babies born before the appearance of coronavirus is 98.5~ 107.3. However, the IQ of children born in the coronavirus period is 27~37 lower than that period, which is about 30% lower, accompanied by a significant decline in language, sports and overall cognitive ability.

Sean Deoni, the lead author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics at Brown University, said that the biggest reason behind the decline in grades may be the lack of stimulation and interaction at home.

Moreover, this year 1 month, a paper published in the famous journal JAMA studied 225 children born in 2020.

The results show that compared with the data before the epidemic, fewer people can crawl and smile in the mirror. At the same time, their social skills and problem-solving skills have declined.

In addition, there are some living habits that are quietly changing:

1, language development and communication skills

At the beginning of the year, the data of a foreign hospital showed that the number of children with language barriers who needed hospitalization during the epidemic increased by nearly 30%.

0~5 years old is a critical period for children's language ability to develop rapidly. The situation of blockade, no walking and staying at home caused by the epidemic caused children to be unable to play outside, or lost the opportunity to communicate with others because they focused on electronic products, which led to language ability development problems.

2. Sensory and social development ability

Language is not only listening and speaking, but also body language and expression interpretation.

Rich facial expressions are an important part of communication, but when masks cover half of the face, both adults and children will affect their ability to judge other people's emotions and thoughts.

For children, especially infants, it is more difficult to understand "face" and the nervous system perception is not well developed. There are also fewer facial expressions to express feelings and emotions, and the golden period of learning to express oneself is missed, and social development is also affected.

3. Physical and mental health

Due to the reduced opportunities for outdoor activities, children can't do as much exercise as before the outbreak of COVID-19, which leads to a significant decline in their sports ability.

Children lack opportunities for exercise and exercise, but sit at home for a long time to maintain a certain posture, resulting in obesity, stunted motor and sensory development, and poor resistance. At the same time, children's emotions have nowhere to vent, their emotions are crazy or dull, and their psychological problems will increase.

In order to get children back on track, parents should do this:

1, * * * attention

The so-called emotional concern is that parents consciously observe what their children are paying attention to. In other words, we pay attention to what children pay attention to and respond to their behavior in time.

For example, when children are playing with building blocks, we can pay attention to what kind of building blocks the children are holding, and we can respond at an appropriate time that "the baby is holding a triangular building block, which is yellow."

Step 2 communicate fully

The so-called full communication is to fully communicate with children and use a lot of descriptive words when discussing with children.

For example, when we do housework, we can say:

"I will put the books on the sofa back in the bookcase, so that my home will look more tidy."

"Now I clean the cup on the coffee table, so that it will be cleaner and more hygienic to drink water next time."

When cleaning, if we nag adults like this, they will probably go crazy. But for children, this kind of communication in the current context will make children understand more vividly and concretely, and it will be easy to connect things. Understanding books should be put in the bookcase, and washing used cups will be more hygienic.

Step 3 take turns talking

It is very important to take turns to participate in the dialogue with children. The key is to have more open questions and answers with children, rather than simply whether it is sunny or cloudy today. What shape is this? What color?

For example: Where does the water in the tap come from? Why wash your hands frequently? For older children, we can guide them to talk about some life topics, even social topics.

Open-ended questions will make it easy for children to start thinking and organize language expression.

Step 4 keep moving forward

According to children's interests and living conditions, choose activities that suit them, and do about 1 hour of physical exercise every day, such as aerobics, hula hoop, kicking shuttlecock, etc.

Proper exercise can not only eliminate fatigue, improve the blood oxygen content in the brain, but also promote brain activity.

Step 5 do some housework

This is a good opportunity to train children to do some housework within their power, such as cleaning, tidying the room, washing and cooking. , improve their self-care ability and labor skills.

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Working at home, taking care of children and housework, economic pressure may keep parents under high pressure for a long time. If parents often show anxiety, irritability and negative emotions, the child's mentality may also be affected.

When parents find that their emotions are out of control, they can calm down first, transmit negative emotions to their children as little as possible, don't yell at their children, and don't scold them. Of course, nobody is perfect. Don't blame yourself too much if you occasionally show negative emotions in front of your children. After you calm down, explain it to your child. I'm sure the children will understand.