{"id":2296,"date":"2020-04-21T12:13:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T11:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/?p=2296"},"modified":"2020-05-19T11:08:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T10:08:50","slug":"expert-tips-keeping-kids-social-at-home-during-lockdown-with-dr-lindsey-cameron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/2020\/04\/21\/expert-tips-keeping-kids-social-at-home-during-lockdown-with-dr-lindsey-cameron\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert Tips: Keeping kids social at home during lockdown with Dr Lindsey Cameron"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Lindsey Cameron<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Director of Education in the School of Psychology, provides expert advice for keeping children social at home during the COVID-19 lockdown.\u00a0She said:<\/p>\n

\u2018One of the most\u00a0challenging<\/strong>\u00a0things about lockdown is seeing how much our kids are\u00a0missing their friends<\/strong>. Having down time to play with friends, on their own terms, is essential for children\u2019s\u00a0development and well-being<\/strong>. The internet has provided many ways for children to\u00a0interact remotely<\/strong>, and maintain those friendships…\u2019<\/p>\n

Her tips are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Think<\/strong>\u00a0about what your\u00a0kids enjoy doing<\/strong>\u00a0with their\u00a0friends<\/strong>. The best way to keep kids social in lockdown is to\u00a0try and recreate\u00a0<\/strong>that at home, with siblings, parents or online.<\/li>\n
  2. Switch off<\/strong>\u00a0from parent mode, even just for a little while, and\u00a0play with your kids<\/strong>\u00a0as their peers would: get messy, run around, play games, have quiet time, build on their creative ideas, and\u00a0let them take the lead<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  3. Encourage and praise<\/strong>\u00a0your children when they play with their siblings. Make sure they know you are\u00a0proud of them<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  4. Socialising online<\/strong>\u00a0e.g. Zoom, FaceTime: This is great for\u00a0reminding children<\/strong>\u00a0that they have friends in the\u00a0same situation<\/strong>\u00a0as them. But some kids find it\u00a0overwhelming<\/strong>\u00a0or just not that interesting \u2013 this isn\u2019t\u00a0how they normally play<\/strong>\u00a0with each other. Keep these sessions short, and don\u2019t build them up too much.<\/li>\n
  5. Recreate the fun<\/strong>\u00a0of playing in person, online:\u00a0use games<\/strong>\u00a0like scavenger hunts or hangman, or lego to make it\u00a0more interactive and fun<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
  6. Embrace the slower pace<\/strong>: without rushing around from school to clubs, to birthday parties and playdates, this gives our kids a chance to slow down,\u00a0enjoy<\/strong>\u00a0being at home,\u00a0playing<\/strong>\u00a0with their toys, and families.<\/li>\n
  7. If children get sad<\/strong>\u00a0about not seeing their friends,\u00a0get them to reflect<\/strong>\u00a0on what they\u2019ve been\u00a0enjoying about lockdown<\/strong>, and that they\u2019ll be together again with their friends soon having fun.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Read the full story on the Kent News Centre here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Dr Lindsey Cameron<\/a>\u2018s area of research is social developmental psychology. She is interested in how children become \u2018social beings\u2019: how do children develop the social knowledge and skills that we have as adults take for granted?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Dr Lindsey Cameron, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Director of Education in the School of Psychology, provides expert advice for keeping children social at home … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55574,"featured_media":2297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[43601,167563,140631,3684],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55574"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2298,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296\/revisions\/2298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/psychology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}