How to teach kids about Coronavirus

By Siddhi Jain

New Delhi, April 10

The novel Coronavirus has not just left our medical practitioners and researchers searching for solutions, but its also parents who find it hard to explain the phenomenon to young children, in a creative, calm way.

As per ontological coach and author Geeta Ramakrishnan, while this Virus crisis will have a psychological effect on all of us, you want to make it as soft and digestible as possible for the little ones.

“You can explain to your kids that Coronavirus is the name of an evil flu virus. When you usually get sick with flu, you get fever, cold and cough, and the doctor gives you medicines and you get better. But when this evil Coronavirus gives flu, it sometimes affects people’s breathing,” she told IANSlife.

What’s required are some rules. “This evil virus sticks to you when you go out and touch things. So you must use some secret tricks which this evil Coronavirus will not like. You must wash your hands with soap and sanitizer as often as you can to keep them clean. You must not go out to meet your friends, so the virus can’t stick to you. If older people have to go out to buy important things, we have to wear a mask and gloves. Parents can use paper and colors to help create stories with your kid on how the brave kids of today saved the world from the evil Coronavirus.”

Parents can also use a free-to-read, digital book for primary school age children. Illustrated by Axel Scheffler, the children’s guide is about the coronavirus and the measures taken to control it. It is published by Nosy Crow, and written by staff within the company.

With expert input from Professor Graham Medley of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, two head teachers and a child psychologist, the book answers key questions in simple language: What is the coronavirus? How you catch it? What happens next? And, what can one do to help?

“This pandemic is changing children’s lives across the globe and will have a lasting impact on us all. Helping children understand what is going on is an important step in helping them cope and making them part of the story e this is something that we are all going through, not something being done to them. This book puts children in the picture rather than just watching it happen, and in a way that makes the scary parts easier to cope with,” Professor Graham Medley said.

The book is available for free on the Nosy Crow blog.

A new story book by UNICEF – available for free in six languages including English – will also help children understand and come to terms with COVID-19. It has been produced by a collaboration of more than 50 organisations working in the humanitarian sector.