The pandemic has taken a toll on children's mental health.
Dr. Petra Steinbuchel is the Director of the UCSF Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Portal, which connects pediatricians with mental health professionals.
She says that over the past year, pediatricians have been facing a new onset of mental health questions because of the challenges kids are facing with distance learning and separation from peers.
"There may be increased stress and anxiety amongst all family members, and that of course affects kids in particular because they really feel it and they take their cues from their parents, especially younger kids," she said on KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" program Friday.
Teens may be especially suffering from the lack of social interaction.
"They are really reliant on that social peer interaction, and they're not getting as much of it and not getting it in the same ways, so that is causing a lot of feelings of isolation."
And children of all ages have been affected by the loss of structure and rhythm and the overall sense of collective trauma that the world has experienced.
Dr. Steinbuchel says as restrictions lift and life slowly begins to return to normal, children are going to need a lot of guidance from the adults in their lives.
Parents can help by patiently and incrementally demonstrating how to safely resume certain activities.
"And it will take some time. But with time and what's called exposure to the things that seem scary right now that you recognize, 'Oh, actually there's not so much to be afraid of anymore'."
