Isolation to Interaction: A report in children’s behavioural changes post-COVID 19

The BTEC and International Baccalaureate Career Pathway (IBCP) are courses that allow students to have two weeks off of school for their personalised work experience in order to pass their course. This system allows students to experience a real-world interaction of their focused career, networking and enhances their career knowledge. As an IBCP Year 12 student, this meant that from March 4th to March 14th, I was doing work experience with two weeks off of school. As my interest is focused in Psychology, it was difficult to find a professional psychology clinic that would be willing to hire a student, meaning that I would have to be creative with how I find value in my work experience. Thankfully, an opportunity was given to me to work in an ESF primary school, Kowloon Junior School, that is right next to us. As an alumni of the school, I was both excited yet nervous to see the changes to school has provided to younger generations yet my focus was immediately set on the different behaviours that these children exhibited. From mundane tasks to providing more personalised assistance to these students, I couldn’t help but ask the fellow staff of what they have noticed from working in this school both before and after COVID 19.

My first week of this experience was to help around the library, with the schedule being to interact and meet with every single class of each year group. From my own observations, I could immediately notice how technology independent the years 3 and above were as this is when they started using chromebooks for their tasks. That didn’t mean there were stark differences in their behaviour though, it was only in my second week where I was allocated to help the year 3 classes is when I noticed more personal challenges students were facing. A few students would have difficulty listening to what their teacher was saying, if they were calling out for them, it could take them more than one call to properly process and focus their attention onto their teacher. It was also noticeable that more students would have difficulty focusing their attention onto their tasks and would drift off. 

This noticeable behaviour would of course make me want to understand what teachers have noticed, with many of them working in the school more than 5 years now. The following report is the details of what many teachers have said about the differences from pre and post COVID:

Firstly, the librarian stated that there was an increased number of selectively mute students who would simply not talk in the school environment. Due to being in a comfortable and safe environment during online school, these fellow students would be able to create conversations through the google meetings. However, coming into a different environment from what they are used to previously has stopped these students from being able to communicate openly with others, and to only speak quietly with a selective amount of people. This realization was shocking to know due to my years of being in school having no students that were selectively mute yet it was also fascinating to understand that online learning was the main cause for this behaviour change.

Talking to some year 3 teachers about what they have noticed was also interesting. A noticeable change was their lack of socialization skills. Many children found it difficult to understand how to react in certain situations or found it difficult to communicate with each other when there is conflict. Simple socialization skills were lacking, from positive attitudes, patience, good hygiene, personal space etc. Of course, this isn’t to generalise all young children, but post COVID has definitely created an impact on how children behave and think. Anxiety is also a constant present for a few students, which isn’t surprising as the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on the 25% increase of anxiety and depression after the first year of COVID. Being isolated in a small apartment with all your family members having to do google meetings and being unsure of what is going on in the outside world are some of the key factors that contribute to many individuals' anxiety from COVID 19.

Overall, I can confidently say that my work experience has truly allowed me to have a better hands on experience in a work environment where children are the main focus and priority in taking care of. I was able to understand how schools must be flexible and adapt to how younger generations learn and process information, especially with the influence of COVID 19 and technology. Truly, an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone who wants to go into the Psychology field.