in the classroom
Art is a great way and a great platform to actually get children to draw what they ’ re feeling .
True feelings
Nurse-led book charts COVID lockdown experience of children worldwide .
By Conor Burke
An international network of children ’ s nursing experts has spent time during the last year creating a unique e-book featuring the self-penned COVID-19 experiences of children around the world .
‘ Our COVID-19 Artwork ’ contains drawings , pictures , poems and narrative from young people aged from four to 14 and was compiled by the International Network for Child and Family Centred Care ( INCFCC ).
The nurses wanted to gain an insight into the lives of children who ’ ve experienced strong COVID-19 restrictions during their formative years .
Co-chair of the INFCC Professor Sarah Neill from the University of Plymouth said : “ These perspectives are important for us as professionals in understanding how people have been affected , but also for children all over the world to realise they ’ re not on their own .”
The idea for the book came about from a Zoom chat , INCFCC co-chair Dr Mandie Foster from Edith Cowan University told Education Review .
The various academics that make up the INCFCC had many of their research projects put on hold due to lockdowns and their minds wandered as they chatted in one of their regular meetings .
“ Then professor Mohammad Al-Motlaq from Jordan was sharing some of the pictures that his children , because they were in severe isolation lockdown then , were doing ,” Foster says .
“ And they were beautiful pictures and very artistic . And then I said , gosh , it would be really , really interesting to know what children are experiencing during this lockdown
“ A lot of children don ’ t have the vocabulary or potentially the right words to express how they ’ re feeling . But art is a great way and a great platform to actually get children to draw what they ’ re feeling , how they ’ re feeling .”
The team asked members of the networks , close family and friends to participate and 55 children from over 17 countries were included in the book .
Work began at the start of the first global lockdowns in March 2020 and the majority of contributors were living through moderate to severe restrictions when they submitted their designs .
“ Children are so , so intuitive and insightful . Many of the pictures had a high focus on hand-washing , disinfectant , about ‘ we have ears to listen and we need to follow the rules about being taught ’ how to wash their hands properly , not to touch their eyes , nose or their mouth with dirty hands , social distancing , gloves , masks , about staying in their bubble ,” Foster says .
“ What came through I think with this is that children as young as four have got a really good understanding of what was important .”
Missing school and friends was a common theme Foster says , as were feelings of boredom and even being sick of their electronic devices .
“ And they were scared , they were sad that people were sad , they were sad that people were dying and they just wanted COVID-19 to die . And one child actually drew a dinosaur and it had a picture of a dinosaur saying COVID-19 needs to die , just like the dinosaurs ,” says Foster .
“ One child wrote ‘ I now know the true meaning of love , having been in lockdown with my family .’ I thought that was beautiful .”
Finding out the true feelings of children in a healthcare setting is extremely important , says Foster , and the book is an example of including children in the process .
Foster ’ s previous work has been on creating a ‘ needs of children questionnaire ’, because too often , she says , parents take over as parent proxies for children and it can be hard to really how children are feeling .
“ Usually children will always draw something that has meaning to them . So I ’ ve done a lot of that work with children and developed the needs of children ’ s questionnaires . Which is the first tool in the world to be developed and looking at children ’ s self-reported needs in hospitals .” “[ That work had ] not ever been done because it was really a difficult process to do and undertake . But there now is a tool out there that children can self-report their experiences and hospital inside .
“ This is exactly the same sort of concept in regards to honouring children as valid participants and that we value their input . If we don ’ t ask , then we don ’ t know . And we can ’ t assume we know because we don ’ t know unless we ask ,” said Foster .
“ It ’ s something we ’ re all really proud of , and we ’ re very grateful to the young people involved for sharing their experiences .” ■
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