Remote learning takes toll on children
Mental, emotional and social strains apparent in students
Caring for a first-grader and a three-month-old baby, all while taking college courses, Mariah Wilton has her hands full.
Adding remote learning for her older child over much of the past nine months has been “harder than I ever imagined it would be,” Wilton said.
It’s been difficult — mentally, emotionally and socially — for her daughter Zoey, a first-grader in the Lake Orion Community Schools, Wilton said.
Zoey is “an extreme social butterfly,” her mom said.
Zoey doesn’t fully understand why she can’t go to school. She doesn’t understand why her birthday party was canceled around the time the coronavirus pandemic hit last spring. She misses interacting with other children at school.
“She used to love going to school and did very well in school, but now, all motivation is lost and she has a very hard time paying attention in class since it’s through a screen now,” Wilton said.
Zoey is a hands- on learner. Remote instruction isn’t allowing her to thrive the way Wilton and her husband know that she could.
According to experts, Zoey isn’t alone.
Educators across the state report widespread depression and other mental and emotional issues, according to an education roundtable organized by the K-12 Alliance of Michigan.
Educators say that when in-person instruction resumes on a regular basis, schools will need funding to hire social workers, counselors and other support staff to deal with the impacts of all these months in isolation.
“People are spread out very thin,” said Jim Wood, a school psychologist for Oakland Schools, the intermediate district that represents all schools in the county.
Wood has been conducting training sessions for school psychologists across the county on how to conduct virtual assessments and other ways to help children affected by isolation.
‘We need each other’
The pandemic is affecting children because it’s unpredictable and confusing, Wood said. In-person school was shut down in mid-March. Then there was summer vacation. In the fall, school resumed, though it was still online only in most districts. There was a brief period when face-to-face school resumed. Then the number of coronavirus cases rose and most schools went back to virtual learning.
In all of this back and forth, there has been limited social interaction for children.
“We need each other. We’re social beings,” Wood said.
“The thoughts we tell ourselves define our world,” he said. In isolation, those thoughts are “unfiltered by the outside world,” which makes those thoughts less objective and potentially far more negative.
It’s true that children are adaptable, he said. He has been amazed by the resilience of many from wartorn areas of the world.
But, he cautioned, “kids can also break in those same circumstances.”
What can parents do?
Parents can take steps to help their children this long
period of isolation.
The most important thing, he said, is to encourage resilience, the biggest factor that will determine how they weather these times, Wood said.
Some of his suggestions for parents:
• Take your children’s concerns seriously.
• Help them put into words what they’re feeling if they can’t do it themselves.
• Assure them that people are working to get everyone through the pandemic.
• Don’t neglect yourself; you can’t help your child if you don’t take care of yourself.
• Seek professional help if necessary.