WHEN a young child falls over in a playground, will their teacher be allowed to reach out and comfort them? As the national conversation reverberates around blended learning, reduced schoolroom capacity and home schooling, it’s this question of human touch and interaction that is exercising developmental psychologist and Fellow of the University of Dundee, Dr Suzanne Zeedyk.

“Touching is really important,” she says, “especially for very young children and we need to take that on board.

“It becomes an issue if a child falls over in a playground. Should the teacher touch that young child? And if they don’t then there will be consequences.

“Because teachers are the ones that the child trusts, and we need to place a high importance on those relationships. I understand that parents and policy-makers are trying to make the best decisions and we have learned to be scared of this virus.

“But if we focus only on that risk and not this risk to their emotional and mental health, and humans do this all the time, then we will regret it.”

Zeedyk believes that social bubbles at school will help. “Again, if we focus on how to keep children apart rather than being together we will harm their mental health.

“But children will be looking forward to going back to school where they can be with their friends. And bubbles will help if children can touch each other within them.”

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But what will the position be at the start of the next school term in August? “The debate about two-metre distancing and touching is a very interesting one,” says Zeedyk. “Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t want to reduce the distance from two metres to one metre at the moment, which will mean only X amount of children will be allowed back into school.

“It looks like children aren’t super spreaders so the question is, are we doing all of this for schools to protect children or other people?

“There is the staff to consider and we’re trying to guard against the virus possibly being brought home, but is it a case of the children making the sacrifices, and what impact is this having on their emotional needs?”

While children will get the opportunity to see their teachers and friends again for part of the week, Zeedyk remains concerned about the lack of interaction with their schools when they are not there.

“Lots of parents have said that blended learning won’t work. Some parents will be able to support their children’s learning, others will be struggling.

“It will depend on a number of things. For some families it will be extremely hard and parents will struggle to maintain their emotional health and maintain school learning. And already-stressed parents will feel guilty.

“It is important here that children hear from their teachers as much of possible.

“If a child has never heard from a teacher they won’t know what is going on at school.

“They might not then trust the experience of schools and be terrified to go back to school or trust their teacher.

“It may be though that the teacher is overwhelmed. There is a tremendous amount of variants across local authorities and some children are suffering.”

Zeedyk believes that we have yet to learn the true effects lockdown has had on families and our children’s development but she believes that it has touched us all.

She added: “It will depend on how the home is functioning too. How cramped is it? Is there a garden? How do you manage conflict? Is there domestic abuse? Are you a family with four children and one laptop? Have you a job? Will the virus kill you?

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“Whatever solution we come up with, we must make sure that we don’t put academic study, mathematics and reading, ahead of the mental and emotional wellbeing of our children.

“This is urgent and we need to make sure there is not a deterioration of mental health.

“But I’m optimistic that we can salvage this. Lockdown has allowed us to consider what kind of society we want to have. Lots of life didn’t work for families before but we can change that.”

At the centre of that change, she believes, is connecting at a primal level again.

“We have had the chance to prioritise relationships again. People have been grieving for the connections that we need as human beings. But this has been a good time for us as we have gone out and clapped for the frontline workers on Thursdays.

‘‘When I’ve been out in the high street in my village we laugh about how we are trying to keep two metres apart.’’

Zeedyk says she has no idea when children will be spared this social distancing but is confident that whatever it is they are asked to do that they will prevail. “They have every chance of coming out of all this well but far more attention should be spent on their emotional wellbeing or they’ll struggle more.”

Dr Suzanne Zeedyk is Honorary Fellow at the University of Dundee, a developmental psychologist and the founder of the organisation Connected Baby: https://connectedbaby.net.