Socialising woes for many students as schools reopen in Bahrain

TDT | Manama                                                                              

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Parents have been asked to pay special attention to the mental health of many children as some of them exhibit a high level of anxiety and despair after the reopening of schools last week following a gap of two long years.

It is learnt that many students continue to have trouble adjusting to the new changes. Speaking to The Daily Tribune, Deepthi Prasad, a leading psychology professional in the Kingdom, said: “All students are not alike. While 50 per cent of them are excited to return to school, the remaining 50pc aren’t really happy as they have to leave their comfort zone, sleeping, learning and behavioural patterns.

“Students were accustomed to a different learning pattern, such as long hours of online class, which has affected their attention span, most often causing difficulties in focusing on studies while harming their social skills. As a result of these difficulties, they will be struggling to cope with the offline demand, which increases stress, anxiety, fear, and anger in them.

Highlighting the impact of the pandemic season on the mental health of both students and their parents, she said: “Earlier, during the pandemic, most parents were facing difficult times, with some working from home and others losing their jobs, which was one of the major reasons why parents did not pay attention to their children’s mental health.”

Ms Deepthi advised parents to “organise children’s routines such as providing all necessary study materials, following the schedule for sleeping and eating on time”. “Parents should give short study breaks and they can help their child to develop new hobbies and make them participate in extracurricular activities, all of which will help to motivate children.”

She also stated that “parents should lower their expectations on their children and stop judging them exclusively on the basis of their academic achievements”.

“To address students’ mental health issues, parents, teachers, and school counsellors must work together.” Bahrain resident Zini Ahmed, mother of a school-going child, who is also a psychology graduate, said, “As adults, we all have diverse needs and different ways of coping with stressful situations.

For children also it is the same, while some can deal well with the difference in learning pattern and related environments, others are bound to have varying levels of stress and anxiety. “Kids aged up to four or five, who are attending schools for the first time, will definitely be facing ‘separation anxiety’.

Parents of these children must exert best efforts to ensure that this transition is made smoothly while sending them to playschools or schools,” she added. Anxiety is defined by the American Psychological Association as a feeling of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes such as increased blood pressure. Depression on the other hand, is a common and serious medical illness that has a negative impact on a person’s feeling, thought process and actions.