Signs your kid’s mental health is suffering during pandemic

CALGARY – From isolation to virtual learning to dealing with illness, COVID-19 has had a lasting impact on our youngest generation.

Pediatrician Dr. Michelle Bailey says kids have been riding a rollercoaster for well over a year, which has been challenging to navigate emotionally.

“One study by Canada Children’s Hospital Foundations reported that 70 per cent of kids between the ages of six to 18 had said that the pandemic had affected their mental health in some way,” she said

“And the things they reported were things like increasing anxiety, increasing isolation from their peers and that could lead to depression, increased use of screen time and that could affect things like their ability to pay attention and their attention span.”

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She says parents can check in with their kids and watch how they are interacting with the rest of the family to gauge how their kids are coping.

“[Are they] attending meal times? [Participating in] conversations with family? Are they withdrawn? Are they isolating themselves in their room? Are they irritable or more easily bothered than perhaps before?” she said.

Bailey adds parents can talk to kids about how to cope or creative ways to alleviate pressure.

She recommends getting outside or doing some kind of physical activity.

People often worry about the development of their kids, whether it’s social or educational. Should parents be worried about how the last year has impacted kids or are all kids in the same boat?

Bailey says it varies depending on the age group, but there’s been a lot of lost opportunities over the last year.

She says this is especially true for the youngest age group.

“For those who’ve had developmental struggles to date this has been a year of lost opportunities often for resource access for things like language development or physical development,” she explained.

“And so for those families, I think there has been a loss at times for being able to access those important resources in a time period when children are young that a number of months, nine months, of not accessing resources, can be really impactful.”

She says for school-aged kids, there’s more of an opportunity to catch up over time on experiences or learning that they may have missed out on.

Bailey adds teens in high school are struggling to feel ready for the next steps in the planned post-secondary careers.