Table 1.
Recommended Online Resources about COVID-19 for Children, Families, and Educators
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American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Offers a downloadable coronavirus resource library with sections for parents and children. For example, Talking to Children about Coronavirus is written by a child psychiatrist, to help adults discuss the pandemic and respond to children’s questions https://www.acap.org/coronavirus American Psychiatric Association An information hub, including hotlines accessed via telephone or text, APA publications, and publications by other mental health organizations. The APA Center for Workplace Mental Health has several helpful resources, including: Employee Mental Health & Well-being During & Beyond COVID-19, Coronavirus and Mental Health: Taking Care of Ourselves During Infectious Disease Outbreaks, and Working Remotely During COVID-19: Your Mental Health and Well-being Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families: Coronavirus Support This site has helpful resources in the following categories: young people, parents and carers, schools and colleges, early years, and mental health workers https://www.annafreud.org/what-we-do/anna-freud-learning-network/coronavirus/ Association for Psychological Science (2020) Human behavior in the time of COVID-19: Learning from psychological science Offers straightforward advice on coping with loneliness, stress, anxiety and depression when living through quarantine and pandemics https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/human-behavior-in-the-time-of-covid-19 Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress A hub of resources for families and leaders in English, Spanish, and French. Some of their Fact Sheets on COVID include: Supporting Homebound Children During COVID-19, Finding the Right Words to Talk with Children and Teens about Coronavirus, Discussing Coronavirus with your Children, Tips for Coping when Quarantined with COVID-19 Family Members, and When Family Members are Hospitalized due to COVID-19. They also have infographics. Educators are invited to submit their concerns to: listeningtoeducators@cstsonline.org Children’s Television Workshop The Sesame Street Family Town Hall about COVID-19 with CNN is a clear, developmentally appropriate explanation of what children can do to stay safe and help during the pandemic, complete with the Muppets https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-symantec-ext_onb&hsimp=yhs- Coronavirus: A Book for Children A free, downloadable picture book designed for children ages 5 to 9. It was developed with input from a professor of infectious disease modeling, a child psychologist, teachers, and the illustrator of the popular children’s book, The Gruffalo, Axel Scheffler. The book answers the questions: What is the coronavirus? How do you catch the coronavirus? What happens if you catch the coronavirus? Why are people worried about catching the coronavirus? Is there a cure for the coronavirus? Why are some places we normally go to closed? What can I do to help? and What’s going to happen next? COVID Health Literacy Project A wide array of fact sheets, produced by physicians and in collaboration with Harvard Health Publishers. Many of resources are available already translated into 40 different languages. Of particular interest to early childhood educators is the COVID Fact Sheet for 3- to 6-year-olds that is a full color, illustrated poster. It concludes with a message for parents and caregivers posted at: English_Children_3-6_FINAL.pdf—Google Drive https://covid19healthliteracyproject.com/# Global Educational Innovation Initiative, Harvard University Teachers will find that this extensive, annotated guide to curriculum, professional development resources, and online teaching tools is helpful and well organized. It also is likely to include some resources that are new to them. Many of the resources are published in different languages. The downloadable, free pdf Supporting the Continuation of Teaching and Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic is a collaborative project with representation from several different leading professional organizations published by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Interagency Standing Committee My Hero Is You: Story Book for Children on COVID 19 Many leading organizations–including the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and Save the Children–collaborated to produce a picture book that explains COVID-19 to children (suggested age range is 6–11). It raises and answers many concerns and questions that children have. The book is available in over 100 different languages, including Braille International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) This site contains numerous resources available in many different languages. In REMEMBER: How to Survive the Pandemic with Your Children! a Harvard professor and psychiatrist at Boston Children’s Hospital highlights seven strategies to support those responsible for children during the pandemic. Concise and in color, the page is suitable for sharing https://iacapap.org/remember-surviving-the-pandemic-with-your-children/ Another publication is Tips for Parents in Confinement Situations. It is a color poster of strategies, suitable for sharing with families https://iacapap.org/tips-for-parents-in-confinement-situations/ The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Their statement, Protecting the Psychological Health of Children through Effective Communication about COVID-19 (Dalton, Rapa and Stein 2020) provides guidelines based on empirical research Protecting the psychological health of children through effective communication about COVID-19—The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health MindEd Resilience Hub (UK) The Royal College of Psychiatrists and Health Education England have partnered to produce key resources about COVID-19, including the categories of: Helping Each Other, Stress & Fear, Tips for Leaders and Managers, Trauma & Loss, and End of Life and Bereavement National Child Traumatic Stress Network This site is repository of fact sheets. One that university faculty will want to read is Coping in Hard Times: Fact Sheet for Youth High School and College Age. Many times, educators worry about saying the wrong thing, so Fighting the Big Virus: Trinka’s and Sam’s Questions https://www.nctsn.org/resources/fighting-the-big-virus-trinka-and-sam-questions0 also available in Spanish, is helpful. The site also includes resources on trauma-informed schools Simple Activities that children and families can do during stay-at-home orders are posted at: simple_activities_for_children_and_adolescents_4.pdf Save the Children 7 Simple Tips on How to Talk to Kids About the Coronavirus Provides guidelines on discussing COVID-19 with children, a poster on handwashing protocols suitable for children, and links to their other resources. You can sign up to receive notifications as new resources are published https://www.savethechildren.org/us/charity-stories/outbreak-how-to-explain-children UNICEF Offers a COVID information center with latest updates, tips and guidance for families, and vaccination information. Publications are in English, Spanish, and French. For developmentally appropriate ways to discuss COVID with children, see their publication, How Teachers Can Talk to Children About Coronavirus Disease Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) information centre | UNICEF UNESCO Reopening schools: When, where and how? provides guidelines for school administrators and teachers as they resume face-to-face teaching. The site has frequent updates of on important aspects of coping with COVID-19 https://en.unesco.org/news/reopening-schools-when-where-and-how World Health Organization Some helpful publications are Mental Health and Psychosocial Considerations During the COVID-19 Outbreak, COVID-19: 24/7 Parenting, and a series of publications called #Healthy at Home that advises adults on such topics as parenting, mental health, and physical activity when families are staying at home much more. Full color posters of infographics that highlight important concepts include: Coping with Stress During the 2019 n-COV Outbreak stress.jpg (528 × 748) (who.int) and Helping Children Cope with Stress during the 2019 n-COV Outbreak children-stress.jpg (524 × 742) (who.int) Find advice for parents prepared in many different languages posted at: WHO-2019-nCoV-MentalHealth-2020.1-eng.pdf |