Hospital creates coloring book to help children cope with the COVID-19 pandemic

The staff at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital released two books designed to help children understand and cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first is a 10-page coloring book for small children, featuring a cartoon coronavirus and simple information tailored for children. The second is an activity book for older children, with more detailed information about the virus as well as some puzzles and activities. The staff are also working on a book designed for adolescents and young adults.

Kristin Canavera, a member of the Hospital’s Psychology Department, explained that “There's a lot of uncertainly, high anxiety, and rapid changes right now, so we wanted to create resources to help children understand what was going on and to help them adjust,”

Initially, the books were meant for the children undergoing treatments at the hospital but it has been made available online for free, so everyone has access to these resources. “While we were inspired to write it for our St. Jude patients, we also wrote it in a way so that children outside hospitals can also benefit from it. Children often learn best through play, so interactive activities and coloring books are great ways to help them understand the changes we're facing today”, Canavera explained.

At the moment, the books are only available in English but the staff plans on releasing translations for other languages.

Download the Coloring Book: https://together.stjude.org/content/dam/together/en-us/other/covid-19/co...
Download the Activity Book: https://together.stjude.org/content/dam/together/en-us/other/covid-19/co...

More information: https://together.stjude.org/en-us/care-support/covid-19-resources.html

Adapted from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/2020/04/02/there-is-a-coron...