Closed schools and bored children at home? Here are the expert's tips for transforming boredom into a precious opportunity to stimulate creativity, imagination and self-esteem
Schools closed all over Italy. To counter and contain the spread of the new Coronavirus COVID-19, the decree of the President of the Council of Ministers provided for the suspension of teaching activities until next March 15. Also stop at cinemas and theatrical performances. The same applies to activities in gyms, swimming pools and sports centers if they cannot be carried out respecting the safety distance of at least one meter from other people. Because of these measures, many parents find themselves reorganizing their days and free time in the family to prevent children from getting bored at home. Yet boredom also has its advantages.
"The exasperated scheduling of the days that parents usually get their children used to allows children to experience moments of rest and breaks like black holes to be filled quickly", he comments Rosanna Schiralli psychologist psychotherapist, creator together with colleague Ulisse Mariani of the method of emotional education. "However, boredom is a fundamental resource not only for regenerating, but for growth itself," continues the expert. «Children need time off. Their brain is not yet able to manage complicated temporal dimensions and stimuli that follow one another rapidly, as unfortunately today happens more and more, also because of an excessive use of technology . Rosanna Schiralli explains why boredom can also be useful.
Stimulate creativity
"When children are bored they have the opportunity to independently search and build viable alternatives. They manage, for example, to invent games other than those programmed by adults and explore the environment independently ", says psychologist Rosanna Schiralli. But the advantages are also others. "By getting bored, they stimulate the imagination, which is a precious bridge between cognitive learning and emotional perception. In fact, it leads to the most powerful engine of human development: desire .
It promotes self-esteem
«Left alone“ in boredom ”, children have more opportunities to direct themselves and equip themselves with wider horizons of creativity, where desires, fears, emotions favor the development of a good emotional harmony with themselves and with the surrounding world. Furthermore, if they autonomously explore and experiment, they have a return to self-esteem which leads them to experiment again. It triggers a sort of virtuous circle that is extremely important for the growth and construction of their self-esteem ", explains the psychologist.
It is good for growth
“Thanks to boredom, a child learns to be alone without feeling alone. Having less stressful and more diluted time scans, it will activate new scenarios and new situations to release your tensions. In other words, he will be able to live, independently, simply well with himself. He will get used to the fact that there is a time of doing and that of quiet. The time of stressful performance and that of tranquility. The full time and the empty one to fill and feel flowing. When bored, the child learns to be in emotions and thoughts, finding solutions by himself. In this way, he will be able to acquire greater autonomy, a better ability to endure conflicts and frustrations without fear of changing his moods ", explains psychologist Rosanna Schiralli.
In the gallery, the expert's advice to be able to experience boredom as an opportunity
This recipe has already been read 171 times!