Ms Lee Li Li, a Clinical Psychologist, is invited to TV2 (Live) Talkshow: What Say You, to share about "Parent-Child Communication during the Pandemic" on 15th November 2020 (Sunday) at 4 p.m.

Would children seek help during the pandemic?

Many children will actively seek help, especially children aged 8-15. They expressed their willingness to seek help from a psychologist directly with their parents. Children may have felt that their distress could not be resolved and they would positively react to this by seeking help from a psychologist. However, some children did not seek professional help but chose to get help from social media or talk to their friends about it. Without getting help from professionals, it is possible to learn some incorrect coping ways to deal with mental distress, such as self-harm, playing online games. During this period, the number of children seeking help has increased, in contrast, data including playing video games, self-harm, and some inappropriate websites are also increasing. Although there are no specific numbers for the data at this stage, it can be seen that the overall trend is increasing.

Do children know what pandemic is?

In the beginning, children could not understand the word pandemic. However, after a few months from the start of the pandemic, some books can be found to let children of different ages learn about coronavirus. Some of the books would also have some cute drawings to help younger children to better understand the general situation happening globally. These books are available on the Internet and the public can obtain these books through several online shopping platforms. Also, parents are encouraged to talk about the correct information about the coronavirus to their children, rather than letting them to get information through their friends or surfing the internet. This is to prevent them from receiving incorrect information, that may cause negative effects on their wellbeing. Besides, we should use a more lovely pictorial way to help younger children to understand the virus as it is very difficult for them to imagine them without able to see them with their eyes. Describing the severity of the virus will also cause them to fear for the pandemic along with the virus. Try explaining in another way with more positivity involved. Example: Although everyone needs to wear masks and maintain social distancing, everyone could spend more time with family members and gets to know and understand more about each other. This allows children to learn to see things from different perspectives.

Will children choose to play more violent games in this pandemic?

Playing games are depending on the child's family situations and their attention towards this subject. Children over 9 years old tend to play more violent games, while the younger ones that are under the supervision of parents, usually plays non-violent games. However, children who are not supervised are more likely to be exposed to violent games. Children at their young age are just curious about violent games because they saw that older children were playing and they wanted to try it. However, older children who play violent games are solely following the trend, so that they would have more topics to talk about with their friends.

What activities that children can play during the pandemic?

Now that we are amid the pandemic, many outdoor activities have been banned, and even the swings and playgrounds that children yearn for can no longer available. Children yearn for nature, socializing with friends along with the comfort of sweating through these activities. In the process of playing, it will make them feeling happy. During the pandemic, it is recommended that parents can find something at home to allow them to sweat, such as dancing, car washing, cooking, or other activities that can make them dirty, sweaty or smelly as it is not possible to do exercise outdoors at this moment. Sweating can ease the distress feeling generally.

How if children refuse to help in housechore?

Do not treat house chores as house chores, but treat it as an exercise time for children to choose. For children at age below 10, making housechore as a competition could motivate them to do housechore willingly. However, for older children, we can tell him directly that it will be healthier if they could sweat a bit by doing some indoor sports or helping to do house chores, or by hold a family meeting to discuss on how to get them to involve in housechore.

How to observe children at home?

Usually, we observe our children by chatting and talking to them. However, parents do not need to ask too many questions to them. Instead, we can start the talk by talking about their interest. By this way, children will feel comfortable when talking with parents. Be a good listener. Especially during this pandemic, children may encounter a lot of hardships., such as homework given by the teacher is not in the same format, and sometimes they can no longer keep up with the progress. The irritability encountered by children would require attention from their parents.

The psychological state of parents during the pandemic

During the pandemic, some parents might be experiencing financial difficulties, such as wage cuts, expulsion, etc. At this time, most of the parents will choose to cover this news from their children. Parents may try to explain according to children’s ages about the hardships of the family through family meetings. Example, children aged 4-5 may not understand the meaning of unemployment, and would even think that it is better for parents to be “unemployed” because parents can spend more time with them. Parents may try to explain about the situation calmly and get them to learn how to reduce expenses throughout the unemployment. Your communication and your calm emotion could be good example for your children to learn how to face difficulties in life.

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