“I’M BORED” JAR: CONNECTING WITH CHILDREN THROUGH PLAY

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has negative impacts on people's physical and mental health, especially among children. Social distancing measures were an important way to prevent the virus from spreading, but also prevented many children from socializing with others by closing schools, and affected their families by disrupting routines, changing relationships and roles. As a consequence of this new routine, children’s screen time has increased beyond what is considered appropriate by the Brazilian Society of Pediatrics. Unlimited screen time can be harmful and is changing the way children play, which is important for children's development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children. This paper presents preliminary results and discusses an intervention, “I’m bored” jar, conducted by Psychology students. The study was carried out to reduce the screen time of a group of children while stimulating their skills and emotional resources to deal with their own boredom by playing traditional games.