Everything you need to know about online preschooling fatigue
Here is a look at online preschooling fatigue, its effects, and how to handle it
How did children spend hours at a stretch in the preschool?
If you are a parent of a child below the age of 6, then you might have thought about this during the pandemic as online classes became the norm.
Preschool is a physical space where your child would have the ability to move around, explore and learn, interact with peers and adults.
But with online classes that can last to an hour or more, is your child experiencing online preschooling fatigue?
We asked Uthista Ram Thota, a child psychologist, about online preschooling fatigue, its effect — physical and psychological, and how to handle it.
What is online preschooling fatigue?
When children experience high levels of tiredness, worry, anxiety, and face massive burnout because of online communication and virtual platforms. Then, they are experiencing online fatigue, says Uthista.
“They do not have a massive vocabulary to even come and tell you exactly how they are feeling or what it is that they’re feeling,” she says and therefore recommends that parents look for the signs.
Physical and psychological consequences
A few physical effects include issues with eyesight, headaches, and some may complain of stomach aches.
If your child is experiencing a high level of anxiety, even as simple as switching on the webcam, then it is a psychological effect of online preschooling fatigue.
Now, the psychological consequences are layered for children whose growth individually is nascent and requires nurturing.
- Divided supervision & no individualised attention
Imagine the children at preschool. They are doing an activity. As they do this, each child is given the necessary supervision, encouraged to learn through scaffolding, and are given constructive feedback.
“The teacher now lacks giving individualised feedback. For example, the teacher to student ratio is outweighed. There is one teacher and there are about 30–35 students and the teacher doesn’t get the time to ask each and everyone in the class for their answer,” says Uthista.
She points out that children will feel lost while doing an activity now as there is no supervision or constructive feedback given. This means a child does the activity without entirely learning the concept.
- Impact on social development
At the preschool, children get to interact with their friends (peers) through free play, especially during the breaks.
This social interaction enables the overall development of a child by multi-folds. “In school, motivation, inspiration and this healthy competition among peers, children learn and ape from their peers and that healthy competition helps in their development,” explains Uthista.
But, when preschooling has gone digital, this aspect is lost. This is one of the important psychological aspects of a child’s development.
“When you look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is seen that safety and security are one of the most important things that a child needs,” adds Uthista.
Another essential aspect, according to her, is the sense of belonging to the classroom, teacher, and peers. This will enable them to perform better in class, stay engaged, and for overall social development.
These skills cannot be learnt in isolation.
- Partial-continuous attention
“It is when the child is trying to focus and scan constantly in the environment,” explains Uthista.
Imagine throughout the online classes, you can see your child trying to listen to the teacher’s question, what their classmates say, and thinking about how to respond.
“This causes a lot of multitasking, which doesn’t happen in a real-time classroom setting. It has a lot of pressure and causes strain on the child’s brain, which leads to lower moods in the child,” says the child psychologist.
In essence, even if the class is for half an hour, the child becomes exhausted.
So, how can we as parents help children with online fatigue? Let’s find out.
How to combat online preschooling fatigue?
Children, especially those in preschool, learn through hands-on engagement. They are more attuned to sensorial exploration for skill development.
Going to preschool is ideal. However, with online classes being the norm now, let’s understand how to handle online preschooling fatigue.
- Create a classroom space, which is a well-lit room. Provide a desk where your child is to concentrate and is psychologically prepared to receive and retain the information they are learning each day.
- Don’t have the classes or use laptops/tabs in the bedroom as it is not the right environment for your child to learn.
- Apart from the scheduled break during the class, you can let your child take a quick break. It could be a water break, taking a walk around the room, going to the garden, etc. Change in the scenario helps your child’s brain rejuvenate.
Most importantly, when you see your child having a burn-out or is feeling drained, let them take a break!
Perhaps, the next time they seem irritated, help your child identify what they are experiencing and explain it to them.
You can check what Uthista has to share below
