Education
UNICEF’s Guidelines on Communicating With Kids About Corona
UNICEF’s extensive guidelines for teachers and parents on how to teach children about the corona pandemic.
In a wonderful initiative, UNICEF has provided its view about how to talk to children about the COVID-19 pandemic to inform them about the necessary precautions and how to conduct themselves during the period.
Check out UNESCO’s guidelines that are extremely easy to follow and helpful for educators around the world:
Preschool
- Focus on communicating good health behaviours, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands.
2. One of the best ways to keep children safe from coronavirus and other diseases is to simply encourage regular handwashing, for at least 20 seconds. It doesn't need to be a scary conversation.
3. Develop a way to track how children are washing their hands and find ways to reward them for frequent/timely handwashing.
4. Use puppets or dolls to demonstrate symptoms (sneezing, coughing, fever), what to do if children feel sick (like if their head hurts, their stomach hurts, or if they feel hot or extra tired), and how to comfort someone who is sick (cultivating empathy and safe caring behaviours).
5. When it’s circle time, have children sit farther apart from one another by practising stretching their arms out or ‘flapping their wings’ – they should keep enough space between each other so that they are not touching their friends.
Primary School
1. Make sure to listen to children’s concerns and answer their questions in an age-appropriate manner; don’t overwhelm them with too much information. Encourage them to express and communicate their feelings. Discuss the different feelings they may be experiencing and explain that these are normal reactions to an abnormal situation.
2. Emphasize that children can do a lot to keep themselves and others safe. For example, introduce the concept of social distancing (standing further away from friends, avoiding large crowds, not touching people if they don’t need to, etc.). Also, focus on good health behaviours, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands.
3. Help children understand the basic concepts of disease prevention and control. Use exercises that demonstrate how germs can spread. For example, you can put coloured water in a spray bottle and spray it on a piece of white paper, then observe how far the droplets travel.
4. Demonstrate why it’s so important to wash hands for 20 seconds with soap. For example, put a small amount of glitter in a student’s hands and have them wash them with just water and notice how much glitter remains. Then have them wash for 20 seconds with soap and water and see how the glitter is gone.
5. Have students analyse texts to identify high-risk behaviours and suggest ways to change them. For example, a teacher comes to school with a cold. He sneezes and covers it with his hand. He shakes hands with a colleague. He wipes his hands afterwards with a handkerchief, then goes to class to teach. What did the teacher do that was risky? What should he have done instead?
Lower Secondary School
- Make sure to listen to students’ concerns and answer their questions.
2. Emphasize that students can do a lot to keep themselves and others safe. For example, introduce the concept of social distancing, and focus on good health behaviours, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands.
3. Remind students that they can share healthy behaviours with their families.
4. Encourage students to confront and prevent stigma. Discuss the reactions they may experience around discrimination, and explain that these are normal reactions in emergency situations. Encourage them to express and communicate their feelings, but also explain that fear and stigma make a difficult situation worse. Words matter, and using language that perpetuates existing stereotypes can drive people away from taking the actions they need to protect themselves.
5. Build students’ agency and have them promote facts about public health.
6. Incorporate relevant health education into other subjects. Science can cover the study of viruses, disease transmission and the importance of vaccinations. Social studies can focus on the history of pandemics and the evolution of policies on public health and safety.
7. Have students make their own Public Service Announcements through school announcements and poster.
8. Media literacy lessons can empower students to be critical thinkers and make them effective communicators and active citizens, which will improve their abilities to detect misinformation.
Upper Secondary School
- Make sure to listen to students’ concerns and answer their questions.
2. Emphasize that students can do a lot to keep themselves and others safe. For example, introduce the concept of social distancing, and focus on good health behaviours, such as covering coughs and sneezes with the elbow and washing hands.
3. Encourage students to confront and prevent stigma. Discuss the reactions they may experience around discrimination, and explain that these are normal reactions in emergency situations. Encourage them to express and communicate their feelings, but also explain that fear and stigma make a difficult situation worse. Words matter, and using language that perpetuates existing stereotypes can drive people away from taking the actions they need to protect themselves.
4. Incorporate relevant health education into other subjects. Science courses can cover the study of viruses, disease transmission and the importance of vaccinations. Social studies can focus on the history of pandemics and their secondary effects and investigate how public policies can promote tolerance and social cohesion.
5. Have students make their own Public Service Announcements via social media, radio or even local TV broadcasting.
6. Media literacy lessons can empower students to be critical thinkers and make them effective communicators and active citizens, which will improve their abilities to detect misinformation.
News source: UNICEF
Image courtesy: PIxabay, World bank, Flicker