Interview with Paz Holguín: the new normal in back to school.

Psychologist Paz Holguín talks about going back to school after the first wave of coronavirus.

One of the aspects that make the COVID-19 crisis more complex is the set of measures to be adopted before going back to school. It is known that the coronavirus is transmitted more easily in enclosed spaces where there are many people, and these are characteristics that are present in the classrooms of most schools, colleges and universities.

That is why this year, the return to school is much more complicated than on other occasions, and this has psychological implications that affect children. In this interview we talk about it with psychologist Paz Holguín, an expert in child and adolescent therapy..

Paz Holguín: back to school in the new normal, as seen from the perspective of Psychology

Paz Holguín is a psychologist specialized in psychotherapy services for children, adolescents and adults, and works in her office located in Madrid. In this interview she talks to us about how children are living the back to school in the context of the coronavirus crisis, a problem that is still affecting a Wide range of countries, including Spain.

As a psychologist who deals with children on a regular basis, what aspect of going back to school in the context of the coronavirus pandemic do you think will be most challenging for children?

Well, in general, it will depend on their age. For those who are starting school this year, the challenges are practically the same as those we have all faced, since what for us is the new normal for them is normality because they have not known any other way of functioning.

Perhaps the challenge at this age will be when everything passes and they have to adapt, now, to work more as a team, to physical contact with their classmates, etc.

For those who have already started school, the context is different, because they already know the school and know how it normally works. What will be more difficult for them is the adaptation of social behavior, the younger ones have the need to start integrating cooperative motor games and begin to prefer contact with their peers rather than with adults. For preadolescents and adolescents, the challenge will also be, above all, in the social area.

Is it common for children to leave home with a perception of the risk of being infected similar to that of adults?

Yes. I always explain to parents that it is important to analyze what kind of coping model we want to be for our children. Parents direct, in the early stages of development, children's interpretation of reality.

So if we are, or have been, parents who have been frightened, with the news all the time, making our fears clear in front of the children without explaining them or giving them or showing them tools to manage them, we will have a child with a very low sense of security in almost any context other than their home.

Can a child become obsessed with avoiding exposure to coronavirus at all costs?

As I mentioned earlier, it is possible.... It may be if a child has had close cases or has been exposed for a long time to news or comments about the virus.

It is also frequent that, even if they have not been exposed to the previous situations, they are afraid of catching the virus not so much for their health but for not infecting their parents, grandparents or people they have at home who are very dear to them.

But let us not forget that children have a capacity for adaptation almost greater than that of adults, so if we provide them with resources and spaces with which they can manage what they feel, we will be helping them to cope with the situation.

Given that children do not fully understand how the world around them works, and that in certain areas of life they believe that magic exists, are they vulnerable to developing superstitions about how the coronavirus is passed from person to person?

Yes, that is why it is important to explain in an age-appropriate way how transmission works and how we can keep ourselves protected with security measures. We should not give them an excessive amount of information, as they cannot process it as we can, but we should inform them by adapting the communication to their age.

On the Internet and at the Official College of Psychologists of Madrid there are fantastic multimedia resources for young children that can help us to help them understand how the virus is transmitted.

In these months, what do you think should be the main "extra preparations" to be adopted by the educational community to meet the developmental needs of the youngest students?

Undoubtedly this question is complex to answer and to do so, I believe, we must go to the principles that underpin schooling: socialization, equal opportunities, intellectual, cognitive and emotional development, etc.

The main thing is that children can have a space where they feel safe. If they go to school with fear, there may be alterations in behavior and academic performance. These spaces must first and foremost preserve socialization interactions in the safest possible way.

Socialization and equal opportunities, in my opinion, should guide these extra preparations for schools. As I have already said well-designed spaces in which children's communication and play are facilitated.

On the part of teachers, calming fears and providing space and emotional coping resources for young children adds to the task of fostering children's cognitive and intellectual development.

And how can parents help?

Well, the idea is not to turn this time into a drama for the children. Some guidelines we can follow are: act as good and calm coping models for them, trust the educational center avoiding criticizing or raising doubts in front of the children, make sure they know the measures they should take and remind them of those that cost them a little more, normalize the emotions they may feel and help them name them so they can know them, manage them and share them with us and above all, be aware of any change in the children that tells us that something is not going well (refusing to go to school, sleeping badly, eating less or more, stomach aches or headaches, irritability, etc. ).