Welcome back to this week’s segment of After School Teatime! We’ve been receiving many questions about pandemic-related situations, and we want to let you know we are here to support you with advice in any way we can! Keep those questions coming in because you never know who else you might be helping out by asking. Get your teacups ready for this week’s question! 

Question from Hartford County– I have a child in my program that used to be outgoing before the pandemic and was fully remote last year. Now that she is back in afterschool, we have a hard time engaging her in activities and encouraging her to talk with her friends. Her parents don’t seem too concerned about it and discount it as her growing up. What can I do to help her?

Hey Hartford, thank you for asking this question. Adjusting to being in-person after being remote for a year can be challenging for a child. The important thing to remember is that adjustments take patience. With so much change happening, having patience with the children in your program is necessary. I would suggest starting check-ins with the child and asking her how she is feeling before the start of the program. Having one-on-one sessions might help her open up about what is troubling her. You also might want to help her ease her way into activities and interacting with her peers. Try alternating the activities for the week. Maybe one day you can do solo activities and then the next day you can do group activities. By alternating the activities, you can keep things balanced without overwhelming the child who is struggling to interact. As she gets more comfortable, you can incorporate more group activities each week. Here is a wonderful article about some breathing exercises that you can practice with her if she is feeling uneasy. It is important to create a space for her where she is able to calm herself down if she is feeling overwhelmed. We hope that this was helpful! Thank you for tuning in to this week’s After School Teatime question!

Don’t forget your questions are anonymous. We’ll see you next week to spill more tea! To send in your questions please click this link.