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Key points
- The pandemic's lack of in-person socialization is having long-term effects on children.
- Parents need to assess any cognitive, social, or emotional gaps and plan to address them.
- Encouraging passions, engaging in educational activities, and offering opportunities to socialize can help.
This summer, parents will need to help their children of all ages and abilities overcome the social-emotional and cognitive deprivation that took place when virtual education replaced in-school learning. Years after the return to normal school learning, statistics are now available on the limitations of online and virtual learning.
These results indicate a slowdown in achievement in the core curriculum—reading, math, science, and language development. Growth or loss in social, subjective, and creative learning areas are more difficult to assess. From my perspective, it is clear that social skills and passion for learning have been seriously neglected. And unfortunately, some older students see school as a roadblock or unnecessary detour in their career development.
I have spoken with many children who are afraid to go to school or who refuse to do their homework. I wonder, did students get used to “pretending” to do their work, a by-product of a year or more of online learning? I have spoken with students who avoided their homework assignments in a clever way by copying others. Did students, young and older, get used to staying at home in their pajamas and texting their friends online? Did computer games replace actual academic education? I believe the answer to each of these questions is yes.
Further, most parents are not trained educators, so even in the best of situations, students did not receive top-notch instruction, which did not help them in understanding their school work. I don’t blame parents. I don’t blame the students, and I don’t blame educators. I am just trying to figure out how to overcome the losses that took place.
Leftover Self-Esteem Issues
What most interests and concerns me are the leftover self-esteem issues related to the lockdown. Fears about leaving the perceived safety of home and going back to school were and perhaps still are overwhelming for some students and their families. And the effects of social isolation on all children and teenagers remain staggering. And no wonder, as our students were not allowed to interact face-to-face with friends without masks. Teaching or exposing students to social skills without access to friends is as ridiculous as teaching children to read without books.
Growth and development in childhood and adolescence are based to a great extent on social experiences that happen in the classroom, at the playground, at after-school activities, and at birthday parties and shopping. These normal social activities help students understand themselves and who they are within their community. Because social activities were extremely limited, social-emotional development, unfortunately, took place at a much slower pace.
Without a doubt, students need to make up for the cognitive, social, and emotional education that could not be addressed during the lockdown. Schools and teachers cannot accomplish this huge task by themselves. Making up for school losses is an unrealistic expectation without extra input and help. Family cooperation is extremely important. Filling in “what was lost” begins with accepting the reality that there is a serious problem, which is the responsibility of the school and parents alike to resolve over time.
What Parents Can Do to Fill in Lost Social, Emotional, and Cognitive Growth
During the lockdown, students were pretty much on their own. The usual encouragement from friends, teachers, and overworked and pressured parents was extremely limited by the task of learning how to teach online at home and at school. Keeping up with students’ understanding and progress was extremely difficult.
While some students liked online learning, there were many students, both young and old, who found online education isolating, hard to do, and impersonal. There was really no one at home to answer their questions in the same way as in the live classroom. Keeping track of the progress students were making was extremely difficult for teachers and parents alike.
Parents now have the opportunity to provide their children with appropriate learning opportunities by looking for extracurricular instruction. I prefer that parents find “live” in-person learning activities and avoid any additional computer-driven instruction. After parents honestly assess what their children need to catch up on, setting up a campaign to overcome what was lost or not learned is critical.
Camp experiences can allow for socialization that was not available. Sports activities provide physical learning, cooperation, and socialization. Music, art, and drama encourage creativity, imagination, and inspiration. Outdoor learning is so valuable for all the enriching qualities that it provides. In other words, there are many different strategies for parents to follow.
Conclusions
Understanding how lost and confused your son or daughter feels about school learning during the pandemic is not an easy task. How debilitating was the isolation that students experienced from friends and teachers? Did they miss sports and creative group activities such as music, dance, and theatre? Do students still feel behind with their ability to interact socially, or have they caught up with friends and extracurricular activities?
Do your children now invite friends over? And do friends invite your son or daughter to work on group or school activities? Have dinner and the movies re-entered your lives? Or does your child withdraw from social school activities? Do your children want to go to school? Or do they find reasons to stay home?
Getting the answers to all of these questions may be very difficult. Try to fill in the blanks that these questions pose, no matter how impossible or how difficult the experiences gained and lost may be for you and your family. When you know what your son or daughter needs help with, then you can start adding experiences to overcome the side effects of the lockdown.
Suggestions for Making Up for Lost Growth and Development
- Find educational and social activities in your neighborhood and community that will interest and engage your children’s intellect and curiosity.
- Research educational activities with an academic focus through online research and by speaking with other parents.
- Look for day camps and overnight camps that your children would enjoy based on their interests.
- Make family travel plans to visit new and interesting places and your relatives.
- Look for children and teenager groups that teach socialization skills.
- Exercise—run, swim, hike, play tennis—with your children on a regular schedule.
- Talk openly with your children about how they are getting along with other children and school.
- Be sensitive to your children’s concerns and avoid labeling and name-calling and humiliation when your child needs help. It was a very unusual time for all.
