Upside of Downtime

JULIA GROVER-BARREY OTR/L
FOUNDER OF IN-TUNED®

COVID-19 downtime has made for some interesting discoveries.

Taking up a musical instrument, gardening and baking artisan bread…all very popular culture things to do right now. Many are realizing how busy their lives were before the pandemic and have promised themselves when it’s all over, they will not return to the hectic pace. This is a good thing.

Distance learning has forced many parents into playing the role of teacher or teacher’s assistant. For parents of children with special needs we have become more aware of the extent of our children’s difficulties participating in the learning process. It may feel like a bad thing, but this too is a good thing.

Focusing, organizing, working to completion and sitting still without disrupting may have been a problem for some students before the pandemic; now we carry the full weight of the child’s struggles in real time.

The upside: Awareness will drive us to do whatever we can to make learning easier for our children. The “novel” situation we are in right now will only make us better problem solvers, team players and curious about finding more effective solutions. I see evidence of this every day.

Hope you are healthy and experiencing many upsides,

Julia