Doctors and psychologists have said that confinement has no impact on healthy children as long as their parents manage their activities well.
Italy has once again allowed children to venture outdoors, despite the objections in some regions, They may venture onto the streets, but remain close to their homes, to take a short walk accompanied by a parent.
A few days ago, the President of Aragon, Javier Lambán, asked for a similar measure to be introduced in Spain by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez. It was not successful.
Many authoritative voices, such as the authors Silvia Nanclares and Esther Vivas and the university professor César Rendueles, are emphasizing the adult centrism that is applied by the Government, the creation of unnecessary barriers which are directly affecting the millions of children who are still locked up in their homes.
The Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, was asked why parents could not be allowed to take their children out for a short period of exercise, in much the same way that pet owners are being allowed to do so with their dogs. He was unable to provide a satisfactory answer saying only, “It is important to comply with the measures. If we did not think that they were necessary, we would not do them.”
So it seems that despite the advice of experts the political message is clear. With the exception of those with “behavioural problems or autism”, Spanish children will continue to be kept in their homes for 24 hours a day.
So are we risking their physical and mental health? No, according to other medical authorities and psychologists. “Healthy children, those without financial or emotional deficiencies, will emerge from this period with few scratches,” they say.
“If there is an organ that can adapt well, it is the brain. And those brains that will adapt the best are of healthy children,” says the doctor, paediatrician and neuropaediatrician María José Mas, a leading authority on neurodevelopment
“Children are smart, adapt and understand the circumstances. If the parents manage it with relative calm, so will the children,” he said.
