At Learning & Wellbeing Psychology, we have been thinking carefully about the worries children may have, and how as parents, teachers, friends and communities we can support them. We also wanted to offer support for the difficult conversations that adults are having with children. We thought that children may have very big worries about the changes that have happened to them such as not going to nursery or seeing family and friends as a result of the ‘lockdown’. Some children may be experiencing increased worries about going outside at all. We don't want to add to their concerns, or create ones which had not been bothering them before but if they are experiencing this, we hope this can help with the conversation.

 

It seemed important to us to do some thinking about ways adults might talk with children about the worries that can arise from this national campaign to help keep people well. We have found there have been many resources explaining the coronavirus and that we need to ‘stay home’ however, less on how children can still enjoy the outdoors whilst ‘sticking to their bubble’.  This may be a worry that many of us might have. 

 

This Supportive Script can be used flexibly to help you speak with your child about what it is still safe to do. Please feel free to pause and elaborate wherever you see fit, ask questions and allow for the child to ask questions. Our Social Stories can help if you wish to speak to your child in more depth about ‘What is the coronavirus?’ or ‘Why do I have to stay home?’. We have created this script to be used for many children. Do change and adapt it for your child and your specific situation if you use it. 

 

You can also listen to our podcast on ‘Going outside in a pandemic’ where we discuss such a situation with a parent.

 

Please let us know your thoughts!