School Nurse

How to Talk to Your Kids About the Coronavirus

• With extensive news coverage about the potentially contagious nature of the coronavirus, children may develop fears about the risk to their own health and safety, particularly with changes in routine like schools being closed and parent schedules adjusted.
• If kids raise a concern or have questions, talk to them in age and age appropriate way. Before talking to kids about what they may be seeing on the news or hearing from their peers, parents should make sure they have an understanding of the virus first.
• Experts say parents should listen to their children’s fears and not dismiss them.
• Children may have concerns, even if they aren’t talking about them.
• The best approach is to ask kids what they know first to get them talking and to assess the information they have and then to correct misinformation, provide reassurance, and acknowledge a plan of action as a family. How will it impact our day-to-day life? Are there cases nearby? The calculation for how to respond is different depending on your locale.
• While it’s known that this coronavirus transmits between people and the impact can be anything from mild to deadly, similar to influenza.
• Individuals who struggle to manage anxiety may be more stressed by news reports, taking precautions, making thoughtful decisions and not allowing oneself to be stuck is a helpful approach that applies to more in life than an emerging health threat.
• If a child expresses concern, parents offer reassurance they’re doing everything possible to keep the family healthy, “My job as a caregiver is to make sure we do everything we can to protect you from getting sick, no matter what. That’s why we wash our hands and if they’re not clean, we keep them away from your eyes and nose and mouth. We sneeze into our (elbows).”