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Hello Jenny Murray welcoming you to this week's podcast for parents and just to let you know we have

recorded this at the beginning of March 2020.

The front page of every newspaper and the lead of every news bulletin throughout this week has had the word coronavirus.

And on Wednesday, the first word spoken to me when I arrived at work were are you scared of the coronavirus?

So how are children coping with the deep anxiety from which everyone seems to be suffering. How can we reassure them and get

them to put it in perspective? Professor Trudie Lang is director of the Global Health Network at the University of Oxford and joined us from there.

Emma Citron is a consultant clinical psychologist.

Emma, what's the best way to reassure a child that actually they probably won't be affected?

I think sticking to the facts is always a good starting point, Jenny, so just letting them know what we know so far and keeping them abreast of the

facts. I think the worst thing to do is to try to hoodwink them or gloss over that. So that's a starting point. And then just to point out, you know, we're not

expecting an Armageddon here. We're not expecting to fall off a cliff. We're just expecting to

manage and tackle and deal and then going on to quietly

reassure them really. We have had an email or a text maybe from someone called Alice who said my five-year-old is very worried

...