If you are a parent or guardian of a student who uses BridgeU at their school, you may be wondering how recent Covid-19 events could impact your child. We’ve put together a few quick tips to support your child in navigating this challenging time:
1. Help your child maintain perspective
It is normal to feel sad, stressed, confused, scared or angry during a crisis. There are some great resources out there to help support teenagers with mental health, especially when self-isolating. Student Minds has a list of advice and tips on their website and further links.
With schools closed, teenagers may have no choice but to turn to their screen for school as well as socialising. Screen time may feel like it’s the only connection they have to the outside world, and this shouldn’t be taken away from them. But balance is important, and it is just as beneficial to turn screen time off to connect as a family. The Verge has an excellent article that delves into this, as well as how parents can talk with their children about Covid-19: How to talk with kids about screentime and COVID-19.
2. Manage expectations/Keep your child focused on what they can accomplish right now
In these unprecedented times, teachers, support workers and other key staff have been put under an enormous amount of pressure to keep calm and carry on. From speaking with various of our counselors that we work with, distance learning can take far more preparation time, particularly at first. Everyone must be mentally prepared for that.
Online learning can affect students’ learning in ways that we don’t yet know. It’s also a challenge for teachers to relate to different learning styles online, as different children learn differently. Some are more visual. Some are more auditory. Some have a mixed learning style.
Children also differ in their ability to self-motivate themselves and participate in these online educational activities. But there are ways that parents can be aware of their child’s learning style and personality, and check in with them.
We partner with Keys to Succeed, a company that offers a range of online assessment tools that allows students to gain a better understanding of their personality, skills and learning needs. Students can take the ‘Learning Style’ test to understand their environmental and productivity preferences. You can check with the school counselor if your school uses these tests. If not, there are free resources available online, such as: What’s your learning style?
3. Support your child’s personal growth and self-exploration
Your son/daughter may not have experienced anything quite like this before. School closures due to Covid-19 have introduced new challenges that he/she is likely learning to deal with. With challenge comes opportunity! Your child may have more time on their hands to work on their hobbies and skills.
Encourage your child to keep track of their personal experiences and growth. Evidence of achievement (academic or otherwise), skills and interests dating back to early high school will become an important part of how employers evaluate young graduates. It will be the role of teenagers to build a dynamic and digital CV to showcase their full range of talents, skills and ambitions. An easy way to do this is by logging and updating experiences in their BridgeU Strategy Advisor. We have also created a remote lesson that students can follow independently, available here: How to be the best university candidate using the Strategy Advisor.