The COVID-19 pandemic is creating some challenges and sometimes stress for many people these days, including children.
Many child and family services groups are offering some tips to help them cope.
Michelle Mondor, a child and youth mental health clinician, offers the following advice.
“Counting to 10, or 100, or 1,000, whatever you need to regulate. Talking to a friend or an adult. Writing down your worried thoughts. Relaxing your muscles by tensing them for five seconds and then release,” said Mondor.
Mondor also recommends hugging a stuffed animal or a pet. She says school closures and the inability to see friends might be hardest on teens.
“Some tips to help your teens are share with them that you’re proud of them. Validate their disappointment. Focus on healthy things to do. Help them remember to keep a routine,” she said.
Mondor says that routine should include at least 30 minutes of physical activity.
She stresses it’s okay for youth to be scared, sad or tired.
“This event is traumatic. So the impact that it has on our bodies responses to things can be seen as lazy, or not wanting to cooperate or angry. It’s really the response to what’s happening in the changes in the world.”
With files from Randy Thoms.
