How Covid-19 is changing the world for children?
Covid -19 and its impact has been in existence for more than 6 months in our lives, it has not just impacted the economy, regular life but also has created a different kind of impact in the lives of children.
Post-Covid -19 the world of children has changed quite a lot, it's too early to conclude what kind of impact these changes will create in their lives or if these changes will become part of their lives in the future, following are my observations and thoughts about how Covid -19 is changing the world of education.
Social Interaction:
Social interaction is a key factor in the development of a child, it’s an informal but an important process through which a child learns and observes about different kind of behavior develops an understanding of self, learns to identify various reactions of others learns to identify the difference between familiar and unfamiliar learns to communicate in different social settings. Covid -19 has reduced the social interaction drastically and it will surely have some impact on the behaviors and skills that children acquire through social interaction.
Communication and language:
Communication and language development is one of the key development factors for the children, and it takes place differently in different age groups, in the early years of children develop communication and language skills by talking to each other, through music, by listening or telling the stories, as they grow older they start understanding complex instructions of others, learn grammar, use stage or group platform often and develop confidence, a lot of such development takes places efficiently when children are together, though teachers have created certain tools to continue this development in the Covid -19 era through online education, but this is one aspect we may say has changed in the world of children.
Parenting:
The role of parents in the education of children have also witnessed certain changes post Covid -19, the foremost requirement for parents in the new world is to set up a learning environment at home and help children in doing the adjustment in the new world. Due to restrictions, children have not been participating in the usual post-school activities, so after the online school time is over, parents also have to engage children in other activities so that the development continues, most of the parents have not been trained properly about their roles and the way they can contribute very effectively in the development of the child. Due to the new additional responsibility parents have also started taking more interest in exploring their role in the development of the child and some of them have enrolled in the parenting education programs, I think this will have a very positive impact in the long run.
Role of the Teacher:
The world of children are incomplete without the teachers; one major change that has happened in the lives of teachers and children is the disappearance of the classrooms so the first challenge for teachers was to adjust themselves and children in the new world of online classrooms. Though it has been proven in many ways that the development of children takes place more efficiently in an offline world, however, the blended form of online and offline learning can make the take away for children more relevant. The positive part is due Covid -19 the testing and acceptance of online learning delivery methods have taken at a very fast speed, teachers have been able to understand their roles and have been delivering sessions using information technology tools effectively. And in the future when there will be a demand for blended learning, the teaching competency would be readily available to deliver. So in a way Covid -19 has made the children and teachers future-ready.
