The impact of COVID on SEL skills was drastic. Our students had unprecedented struggles in many areas.

Impact of COVID on Mental Health

According to “the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) are joining together to declare a National State of Emergency in Children’s Mental Health.”

We are seeing in our classrooms every day the struggles that our students are having. Adolescence was challenging before COVID. As counselors, we are seeing unprecedented numbers of students self-harming, reporting attempted suicides, and reporting thoughts of suicide and self-harm.

Students have not focused on their academics when they are focused on their mental health. According to the CDC, “During 2020, the proportion of mental health-related emergency department (ED) visits among adolescents aged 12–17 years increased 31% compared with that during 2019.”

Impact of COVID on Social Skills

There is a lack of research at this point on the impact of COVID on bullying and social skills. We can look at our own schools to draw local conclusions.

For many students, last year’s school was virtual, hybrid, or in-person, with many restrictions. This year across the country, students are beginning to see a return to pre-COVID school.

During these restrictions and changes, many students did not have the opportunity to interact and play with one another normally. Students that were doing virtual school only had electronic interactions.

In-person students had many restrictions. Many students ate lunch in the classroom, wore masks all day, and were kept in cohorts to reduce contact tracing. This leads to students spending less time with their friends and having less social interaction. While they were in person, it was highly structured and did not offer the same social opportunities as before.

What are we seeing in our schools and classrooms now that school seems more traditional in many locations? Many counselors are reporting that students have lost their empathy skills. They have had a long time of not seeing one another’s faces. Not being able to see one’s face hides their facial expression. Students do not see a grimace or a frown when a joke goes too far. They might miss a frown when a classmate is feeling sad. This also means that they are missing out on smiles and the oxytocin and serotonin that get produced when you see others smile.

Impact of COVID on Bullying and Friendships

Students are using social media as a weapon. Students learning from home primarily communicated with their friends via social media. Now they are being brutal to one another on social media. The messages sent privately and in public posts are brutal. Students would likely never say the things they post in person. On social media, they feel they have the freedom to say whatever comes to mind. This is now extending to notes in the classroom written to one another.

Our students have also missed out on opportunities to make friends. They are out of practice. Students that are shy or anxious are struggling the most. They have lost the confidence to go up and talk to new students. All students are out of practice simply interacting with one another in person. Who are they going to sit with at lunch? What do they do if they have two friends that want to hang out with them at the same time?

Many students are feeling overwhelmed being back in school. They have been used to being at home or in small groups. Now that they are back to school, the hallways are crowded, and the cafeteria is loud. We need to think about alternate arrangements for our students that can’t handle the sensory stimulus in loud and crowded locations in the building.

Impact of COVID on Academics

Virtual learning is HARD. It is no secret that MANY of our students struggled while home. Some did not have the technology to access school, others did not have parental support, and many others simply struggled to learn on a device.

Learning from home caused many of our students to be behind academically. This is causing a lot of stress and frustration for them, their teachers, and their parents. Teachers are trying to catch students up to where they typically should be. Students are feeling overwhelmed because the work is hard, and they are not used to being at school all day. Some of our students are so frustrated that they are not even trying or have increased mental health issues.

Our special education teachers are seeing increased requests for special education testing. Parents are concerned that their students are failing. They are in a panic to help their student and are doing anything to provide assistance. Most of our special education departments were not designed to handle students that are behind but rather students that have a learning disability. Special education resources were spread thin before COVID and are now even thinner.

Many of our students are showing a need for remediation. COVID hit students differently. Students with learning disabilities or other diagnoses struggled to work from home. Our students had varied access to help while they were out of school. This has played a major impact on the need for remediation.

Impact of COVID on Behavior

Students that are struggling academically are seeing an impact on their self-worth. They feel stupid and incapable. Students that feel incapable feel no need to try hard to overcome the situation. It is not a problem to be conquered but instead, they own it.

We also know that behaviors increase when students are struggling. Who wants to raise their hand and look stupid in math class? It is much easier to avoid looking stupid by acting as the class clown. There is also an increase in students eloping from the classroom out of frustration.

Take a look at the rest of our series to see what we can do to overcome the impacts of COVID on our students’ SEL skills.

SEL Unfiltered

Do you want to hear more? Check out the rest of our series on COVID and SEL Skills on our SEL Unfiltered podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts.

Check out other episodes in our COVID and SEL Skills series, including Recovering from COVID, Reducing Anxiety, Reversing Apathy, and Resilience and ACE Scores.

Game of the Week

Every week on SEL Unfiltered, we like to bring you a game or activity. You can use the game with your students, in the classroom, or in a small group. This week Kaitlin and I played the classic Hangman game.

Hangman is a game that can be played with your entire class or with a small group. Start by coming up with a word or phrase. You can tie this phrase to a topic you teach for the day.

On the board, you will draw dashes to represent every letter in the phrase you chose. To the side or on top of your phrase, you will draw the structure that holds your “man.” It will look like an upside-down capital L.

Now the fun begins. Allow students to start guessing letters. Write the letter in the correct location when a student guesses it correctly. When a letter is guessed that does not fit into your phrase, you will write it below the phrase. You will also draw a body part of your man.

If the class guesses all the letters before the entire man is drawn, then the class wins the game. If the man is complete before the phrase is complete, then you win the game.

There is a multitude of online hangman creators.