"The social-emotional needs of children to connect with other children in real time and space, whether it's for physical activity, unstructured play or structured play, this is immensely important for young children in particular." – Dr. Dimitri Christakis, MD, MPH
With the current lockdown forcing the shutters closed on many businesses and organizations worldwide, this article takes a deeper look at the effects of physically keeping children out of school during the pandemic. Distance learning is an obvious alternative in times like these, and while this is a convenient method to continue learning for those who have access to the internet, it certainly doesn’t address another very important aspect of physically attending school: the mental health and social-emotional development of children.
In a new piece published in JAMA Pediatrics, Dr. Dimitri Christakis, one of the nation’s most prominent pediatricians and Director of the Center for Child Heath, Behavior & Development at Seattle Children’s Hospital, discusses why he believes that “the risks to children’s learning, social-emotional development, and mental health need to be better balanced with the risks of spreading the coronavirus.”
Read more in the full article at NPR.org.