After the earthquakes, experts emphasize the importance of children's psychology and emphasize the importance of preparing them for crisis moments before the earthquake according to their age.
Earthquake action plan is very important. Emotions such as fear and panic, along with the losses and rescue efforts after successive earthquakes, also affect children's psychology. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare children psychologically as well as physically for natural disasters and crisis moments such as earthquakes.
Earthquake brings out negative emotions. Earthquakes elicit negative emotions in children as well as in adults. Just like in adults, earthquakes elicit strong and negative emotions in children, such as fear, panic, restlessness, insomnia, tension, blame, insecurity, loneliness, freezing, crying. For children who have experienced an earthquake, crisis counseling is needed to deal with these emotional effects that cause mental turmoil. Only a professional crisis team can start the process of healing from increased anxiety, anger and worry.
How to Mentally Prepare Children for an Earthquake?
It is necessary to prepare children for disasters even before they are exposed to an earthquake. In order to mentally prepare children for disasters, it is important to give correct answers to their questions. This preparation depends on the age of the child. If it is given in the form of exaggerated and bad information, it changes the child's perspective on the future and threatens their physical and mental well-being.
How should individuals prepare their own action plan?
In the preparation process, individuals should create their own action plans. First of all, it should be said that the movements of the earth's crust are natural, but that people have created safe places for life by knowing and taking this into account. Their own action plans should be discussed. How to behave both at school and at home, how to create a life triangle without panicking should be discussed. They should be told that their own homes and places are safe.
A child can be scared even if they are only exposed to media. They lose sleep, do not want to be alone, go to the toilet frequently. It should be told that this is normal. They should also be told about the people they are curious about. The child should be prevented from magnifying the fear inside, should be able to manage emotions correctly, and should be able to act calmly.
How should children be informed about earthquakes?
Since our country is a country with many natural disasters, the information process should be spread over time. Natural disasters such as earthquakes occur frequently in our country. For this reason, trainings do not need to be done in a short time. It can be done over time. Assigning tasks to children, teaching them to take precautions in dangerous situations, for example, showing them the location of electricity, natural gas, water valves and teaching them that they should be closed cannot be expected from preschool children, but they can be taught.
For school-age children, research on earthquake precautions, the duty to be informed, precautions, telephone information, the results of the earthquake and the coping methods and policies of the countries that have coped with the earthquake will help the child develop a sense of control over his/her life and shape his/her future life positively and correctly. When awareness raising is provided sufficiently, the possibility of harm is eliminated. The most important point that parents should know is that if their child's routines such as sleeping, toileting and eating are disrupted due to anxiety, they should consult a specialist if it does not relieve them.