Impact of pandemic on your child’s social skills, ways to overcome them

A worldwide lockdown state during this pandemic has limited a child’s interaction to their immediate family and pets, if any. While this abnormal phase has severe health concerns, it also impacts social behaviour especially in children. The pandemic has brought about a huge disruption in a child’s social interaction by snatching vital sources of interaction such as school life and play dates. Be it attending classes or walking to class with friends, sharing lunch or notes, playing and creating projects together, children learn innumerable skills like cooperation, trust, loyalty and support, emotional skills like understanding and expressing their own emotions, decision making, coping with challenges and accepting responsibility.

A very well known theory of Maslow states that humans are inherently a social creature and require emotional relationships to develop to their full potential. Especially during the growing phase of life. The pandemic isolation is disrupting a child's cognitive and emotional stability which has coercive effects on the child’s mental health.

However there are very restricted opportunities to be physically near to others but still we can socialize anywhere and at any time. It simply requires a little creativity and an open mind, which can allow you to help your child keep up with all the great work on their social skills.

Here are some useful ways to overcome this problem and help your child continue to make progress.

Instead of calling it “social distancing” we can rather use the word “physical distancing” for it and can engage our kids into plenty of methods to maintain a strong network of support via video chatting through different social media platforms. By virtual playdates kids can get together with one or more peers for some nice bonding time.

The power of handwritten letters is greater than any email, text or chat. Parents can encourage a skillful habit of writing or drawing in children by making them share stories to their loved ones through this old-fashioned style of staying connected.

Learning through play is an educational and psychological method to develop social and cognitive skills. Parents can involve their kids in playing board games together and have a nice family time. Or either pick up games that require a lot of perspective-taking skills. For example, in a guess game, it requires an analytical thinking skill, derivable reasoning that suggests helpful questions, taking turns, and tolerating frustration if in case they lose.

Bringing kids into the kitchen can actually help in building their confidence, basic skills, and can elevate their mood through this fun activity. Allow them to show what they can do and work in the kitchen. Introduce them to new words, recipes, and encourage them to taste new ingredients. Be it assembling a pizza or decorating the salad on the plate, allow them to use their utmost creativity and be adventurous. Finally, don’t forget to praise them in the end, even if the result is not exactly what you expected, just praise their efforts!

Promote more directed activities such as book reading habits in their routine. Introduce them with different motivating characters, different events in the story, and social situations in a plot that encourages prosocial thinking. Have a balanced conversation regarding the book. Ask appropriate questions about the story, character or setting. This is simply a fun way to develop conversation skills. Also share your life experiences, unique and sometimes unhandy stories from your past in order to inculcate values and strength to handle difficult and unexpected circumstances.