Returning to school after a while could be stressful for almost every student. Especially, when they’ve been away from school and stuck inside homes for an entire year or more. The outbreak of Covid-19 had almost snatched away the primary activity from students – they’re bound with virtual learning and could hardly get any exposure to the outdoor world.
The crazy year impacted almost everyone around the world. But young students were the most affected – a lot of them couldn’t grasp the online learning methods, some of them were unable to achieve their milestones and most importantly, they were unable to socialize. This lack of socialization and one-to-one learning really took these kids backward. It shattered their confidence much cruelly.
The good news is schools are reopening. With the number of cases shrinking around the globe and the massive availability of vaccines, most states have made the decision to bring back the normal routine. But of course, with rightful adaptation to the precautions such as masking and physical distancing.
But wait!
Are the students really ready to readjust to these new social settings? Is their mental state all settled to come out of the virtual learning norms?
Well, it’s really critical to answer these questions. Though the kids are excited to finally come out and readjust to these new social settings, they sure are anxious to deal with this new world.
It’s important that their concerns are addressed and their mental health is given priority more than ever in these crucial times. To aid you into learning the rightful tactics, we have put together a list of tips to help anxious students readjust to the new social settings in this blog post.
Top Tips to Help Anxious Students Readjust to the New Social Settings
Dive in to burst your curiosity!
Educate the Facts Right – Since the outbreak of pandemic, we all have been shoved with tons of information. True or false, they have always been a source of anxiety. Now that it’s been more than a year we have been into this situation and most of us have almost adapted to the new norms, its important that the students have access to all the rightful facts.
There’s a lot of misinformation prevailing about the virus and that’s certainly a reason for anxiety among students. To help them cope with their anxieties, we shall give them the right information. As long as they’d know the exact reasons for the spread, exact symptoms to be worried about and so on – they’d feel confident about going out and adapting to the new normal.
Prepare them for Frequent Closures – No wonder the schools are reopening, there could be random closures based on the increase in cases. Also, students might be going to the school all fine one day and sent into a quarantine the next day because one of their colleagues has tested positive. All of that can cause massive anxiety and depression among kids.
How to help them deal with that anxiety?
Well, the best you can do is prepare them for such unfortunate incidents beforehand. Tell them all the possibilities already and also guide them about the reasons behind. Don’t just tell them that their school may shut down randomly but also justify that it would be for their safety and protection.
Nothing could be more helpful in this situation than knowing about how things might go uncertain.
Keep Boosting Up their Morals – With all this hybrid learning and frequent closures of school, a lot of students are likely to suffer from lack of learning. They might feel themselves behind their classmates. They can be upset for not being able to attain some incredible grades or possibly for not being a part of physical activities.
Your job here is to keep boosting their morale. You have to remind them that their health is more important than achieving higher grades. You have to ensure they don’t feel themselves falling behind their classmates or so.
How to do that?
Well, you can let them join activities such as painting, singing or anything that does not require a lot of crowd. It’s just that you have to make them believe they are not less capable than anyone else and boom – they’d be fine.
Adapt to Open Communication – No matter how much effort you put into helping these anxious students, they’d feel distressed somehow. The key here is to adapt to open communication. You have to be very cautious but open with your kids during these times.
It’s important that they share openly about what they feel. Either it’s the social anxiety hitting them while meeting people after a lot of time or the fear of getting good grades, your kids shall be able to talk to you about their feelings and anxiety.
Only when they’d be able to share, you’ll have the leverage to help them sort through their problems. If you keep it otherwise and your kids are unable to speak about their fears related to these new social settings, you’d never be able to help them cope up by any means.
Don’t Rush Them into Adapting to the New World – The world is adapting to the normal undoubtedly. But you don’t have to rush your kids into it. They have spent a year and more in quarantine with no social interactions and that too with an immature mind. It will take some time for them to process that and come out to become a part of this new world.
Let them take their time. Give them the space to learn the new norms themselves and come out stronger than before. Your pushing them into taking part at school wouldn’t be of any use. It would only put pressure on their minds and might end them up into a mentally unstable situation.
The best you can do for them is give them the room for self- learning and self-evolution. It may take some time but they will surely adjust to the new social settings.
Seek Help From a Mental Health Professional – In case you feel like a student is more than anxious and couldn’t be handled at home and needs to improve mental health, it’s always a safe option to seek help from some mental health professional.
Feeling anxious to deal with the new social settings is genuine by all means. Especially for young students who’ve been locked inside homes for days and months – going to school and meeting people could be really hard.
The best you can do for such anxious students is be supportive to them. Guide them with rightful facts, teach them to differentiate between right and wrong information, and most importantly, tell them that it’s ok to feel anxious. The more you’ll give them space and time, the better they’ll be able to deal with their anxiety and adapt to the new social settings.
You might think that forcing them into the new world could work. But that would only be a source of maximizing their anxiety and depression. These have been harder times and we all have been majorly impacted by them. It would take some time and effort for all of us to come out of the effects. So, be patient and deal with these anxious students politely.
