Calming Your Child's Coronavirus Fears

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on HealthDay.

Schools are closing. Sports and other activities have been canceled. Everything is changing. In the midst of this chaos, how do parents keep kids from stressing too much?

"For families, this is truly now hitting home," said psychologist Robin Gurwitch, from Duke University and the Center for Child and Family Health, in Durham, N.C.

"Families now need to think about how to manage having children at home for extended periods of time. First, families need to set up a schedule and a routine. Keeping as much routine as possible is important," she said.

But Gurwitch added that it's important to be flexible, too. "Things change quickly and anxieties are running very high. Parents will have to be more patient and attentive to their child's needs," she said.

And, what about the elephant in the room -- should you talk to your child specifically about coronavirus?

Dr. Eric Herman, a clinical psychologist at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, said, "It's going to be hard to tell kids that everything is going to be fine when we're closing schools. They have to think that something big is going on."

Herman said to let them ask questions and to really listen and respond to the specific questions they're asking.

Read the full article by clicking the source link below.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/infectious-disease-information-21/coronavirus-1008/calming-your-child-s-coronavirus-fears-755804.html