Explaining covid

The COVID-19 outbreak has now been officially declared a global pandemic by WHO. This has seen the transmission of the virus increase by 13 times in other countries outside of China. This determination certainly makes the public even more vigilant, especially children. However, how to explain to children about COVID-19?

Tips for explaining COVID-19 to children

As one of the efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19, almost every country has decided to shut down the access of infected citizens from entering the alias city lockdown city. The closure of this access turned out to have an impact on other public facilities, including schools.

This of course raises various questions in the minds of children, especially when someone closest to them is a COVID-19 patient. The possibility of children knowing COVID-19 from the news does exist, but there is nothing wrong with hearing it from their own parents.

According to Victor Carrion, a psychiatrist at Stanford Children's Health, parents and caregivers need to explain COVID-19 to children according to their questions and their age. In addition, you also need to pay attention to the language being spoken so that it doesn't cause anxiety.

Here are some tips that might help you when telling your child about this disease outbreak.

COVID-19 Outbreak updates Country: IndonesiaData

1,024,298

Confirmed

831,330

Recovered

28,855

DeathDistribution Map

1. Ask what the child already knows

Before explaining in full about COVID-19 to children, it turns out that you need to first ask what they already know.

Asking children also needs to be seen according to their age. For example, for school-aged children it may be better to ask if the people at school have explained COVID-19 and what they said.

Meanwhile, for children who are toddlers or younger, you can ask them if other adults have talked about this disease outbreak. That way, you can find out whether the child has heard the correct information or not.

After that, you can start inviting children to discuss and see how they react. Some children may be interested and will often ask you questions, but there are also some who rarely ask.

Therefore, explaining COVID-19 to children also needs to look at the situation first, whether the child wants to follow the news or just wants to know.

2. Explain honestly and easily understand

After obtaining information about what children already know, now is the time to explain to them about COVID-19 in language that is easy to understand and honest.

First of all, try to focus more on helping your child feel safe, but still honest. Try not to explain this outbreak of viral infection in too much detail and more than children ask.

For example, there are some children who may ask about their schools being closed and you can certainly answer their questions honestly.

However, when they never ask or it never happens, you don't need to bring up the topic. Also, when it's time for your child to ask questions and you happen to not know the answer, answer honestly.

After that, use these questions to find out together with the child through official websites, such as the CDC, WHO, or government pages about COVID-19.

This is so that children know about the facts and not only see news about scary information such as death rates. Don't forget to use a calm voice when trying to explain COVID-19 to your child.

3. Give space when the child is feeling anxious

Explaining the COVID-19 outbreak to children can certainly cause them anxiety. The response is very natural. In fact, many of them may worry whether this will happen to them or their loved ones.

What's more, there is a lot of coverage on social media or other platforms that shows scary information for them.

If this happens, try to direct the child to age-appropriate content so that they don't find wrong news or scare them.

Try to tell them that COVID-19 in children does not cause severe conditions like adults. In addition, make yourself a parent and a reliable adult to talk about fear or seek answers to COVID-19.

4. Help the child feel in control

It is good to get the news about COVID-19 to children, but it is also important to help them feel that the situation is under control.

You may be able to start explaining to your child that the symptoms of COVID-19 are not causing them severe symptoms. However, don't forget to remind children and adolescents to keep taking precautions, such as washing hands properly and maintaining good body hygiene.

The amount of information that comes in about the high death rate and transmission rate certainly makes children even more worried. You can balance this by reassuring them that hospitals and doctors are ready to treat infected people.

In fact, telling children that experts are developing a vaccine for COVID-19 can actually ease their anxiety even a little.

Meanwhile, teenagers were more worried about other family members than themselves. If the child is worried about the condition of their grandparents, let them contact them to find out the latest news from there.

Thus, you can explain COVID-19 to your child calmly, but still be careful.

5. Keep talking about COVID-19

In fact, explaining the COVID-19 outbreak to children cannot be done once or twice. Information about diseases that attack the respiratory system will continue until it is over.

Therefore, you always need to check on your child. In fact, you can use COVID-19 as a means for children to learn about their bodies, as the immune system can fight viruses and diseases.

In addition, keeping up with the latest information about COVID-19 is also important if they ask.

However, when you want to discuss the outbreak with your child, try asking them what they think. This is so that you know what your child feels and open up conversations that are not only about the news of COVID-19.

Explaining COVID-19 to children is not easy because it requires a lot of patience and caution. If you feel like you can't handle this on your own, ask your spouse or other adult family member for help.