Parental stress and online learning for school children during COVID 19
Now that the pandemic curve has been well and truly flattened with a lot of
necessary (but extremely hard) social distancing, it’s time for our young
people to get back to school.
Over the past few weeks our young people have been learning from home. As a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, I have seen many families with varying experiences of online learning in Gold Coast and Brisbane.
For some, online learning has gone really well. Some young people have had no trouble getting up on time, preparing for the days lessons and signing on to whatever their school uses for home learning. They have also been able to keep up with the pace and expectations set for them, enjoyed learning via Zoom or Teams or their schools preferred learning platform and been bang on with their schoolwork. Their parents have also found it easy and relaxing as they have not had to worry about their kids being at school during the pandemic, have seen their learning skyrocket and marvelled at their child's concentration. They have learned that concentration is concentration whether the focus subject is Fortnite or English literature.
And then, there's the rest of us.
We have been stunned at just how late one can get up and still drag themselves to class in their pyjamas (let’s face it, there are no uniform checks on Zoom). We have learnt how many times an hour (pick a number over 10), one needs the toilet, a snack, a leg stretch or just a general walk around the house. Young people have been masterful at having another window open in the "background" and the speed at which they toggle between windows when a parent comes into the room approximates that of light. We have also felt hopeless at our (in)ability to get our children to concentrate for more than 5 minutes and seen our stress levels rise as the COVID 19 lock-down continued. Our biggest personal regret has been buying a study chair that "swivels" and has wheels, during the early days of panic buying office furniture.
Most of us have realized that our fantastic teachers deserve a medal for being able to teach not 1 but 30 youngsters in a single class at school. All in all, despite the different experiences as parents, the resumption of "regular" face to face schooling has come at a very welcome time!
Stress levels have risen due to a number of factors in the COVID 19 pandemic. Experiencing social isolation and the absolute necessity of learning online have added to the burden for some people. Hopefully, our young people will get right back into the swing of things at school and will look back at this as a learning opportunity in itself!
Over the past few weeks our young people have been learning from home. As a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, I have seen many families with varying experiences of online learning in Gold Coast and Brisbane.
For some, online learning has gone really well. Some young people have had no trouble getting up on time, preparing for the days lessons and signing on to whatever their school uses for home learning. They have also been able to keep up with the pace and expectations set for them, enjoyed learning via Zoom or Teams or their schools preferred learning platform and been bang on with their schoolwork. Their parents have also found it easy and relaxing as they have not had to worry about their kids being at school during the pandemic, have seen their learning skyrocket and marvelled at their child's concentration. They have learned that concentration is concentration whether the focus subject is Fortnite or English literature.
And then, there's the rest of us.
We have been stunned at just how late one can get up and still drag themselves to class in their pyjamas (let’s face it, there are no uniform checks on Zoom). We have learnt how many times an hour (pick a number over 10), one needs the toilet, a snack, a leg stretch or just a general walk around the house. Young people have been masterful at having another window open in the "background" and the speed at which they toggle between windows when a parent comes into the room approximates that of light. We have also felt hopeless at our (in)ability to get our children to concentrate for more than 5 minutes and seen our stress levels rise as the COVID 19 lock-down continued. Our biggest personal regret has been buying a study chair that "swivels" and has wheels, during the early days of panic buying office furniture.
Most of us have realized that our fantastic teachers deserve a medal for being able to teach not 1 but 30 youngsters in a single class at school. All in all, despite the different experiences as parents, the resumption of "regular" face to face schooling has come at a very welcome time!
Stress levels have risen due to a number of factors in the COVID 19 pandemic. Experiencing social isolation and the absolute necessity of learning online have added to the burden for some people. Hopefully, our young people will get right back into the swing of things at school and will look back at this as a learning opportunity in itself!
Comments
Post a Comment