What’s Going Around: Back to school tips

WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — After a summer vacation of late nights and sleeping in, it’s back to reality Monday and Tuesday for hundreds of thousands of children and teachers across the DMV as the new school year begins.

Dr. Yolandra Hancock, a pediatrician at Generational Health Center in Upper Marlboro, Md., has advice for parents and caregivers for their child’s return to class.

She said one of the most important things to do is for children to get plenty of sleep. She said it helps to wake up their child earlier in the morning, as it naturally lends itself to them going to sleep a little bit earlier.

“Don’t wait until the night before school starts to make them go to bed earlier and have them wake up earlier in the morning. I recommend maybe even starting today, 15 minutes earlier, having them go to bed or tomorrow, 15 minutes earlier, waking them up, and continuing to add an additional 15 minutes so that their systems can adjust,” Hancock said.

Another area of focus is what Hancock calls sleep hygiene, which essentially limits the kids’ screentime. She recommends no more than 2 hours of screen time with anything that has an on/off switch, unless it’s school-related. 

“What’s happening right before they go to bed? Are they using their phone? Is their phone in the bedroom? Is there a television in the bedroom? Really talk through what this good sleep hygiene plan will be. That may mean being like what I do with my daughter, where she has to check her phone in at night so she doesn’t even have the opportunity to take it into her bedroom,” Hancock said.

Hancock also said she recommends a check-in for parents to ease their child’s anxiety on going back to school.

“You can either use a number scale, a scale of 1 to 10,” she said. “How scared do you feel? How anxious, how worried, how happy? Excited. It doesn’t always have to be negative about school, about a new class, a new teacher, new friends. Let them give you that number or have a face if they’re not able to understand the number system, a sad face, a straight face, or a happy face, and then ask them why did you gave an eight to feeling worried about starting seventh grade? As an example for my daughter, they’ll be able to give you an answer. I’m scared because I am starting a new school and now I have to make new friends and then follow that up with what can we do to make that a five or four? So they have some autonomy in making decisions about how to make their school year better,” she said.

Hancock added it also gives you a place in order to take on some of the responsibility to help your child feel comfortable.