Summer Break Unveiled: Impact of Severe Heat on Children
====================================================================================
In a world where global temperatures are on the rise, extreme heat poses a significant threat to children's mental health and learning. This article explores the multifaceted impacts of extreme heat on children, from physical health risks to emotional distress and disrupted developmental experiences.
Recent findings highlight the vulnerability of young children, particularly infants and those under six, who heat up faster and may not communicate their discomfort effectively. This physical stress can exacerbate mental health issues and developmental delays.
Extreme heat forces reductions in outdoor activities, both at home and in schools, to avoid overheating. This reduction in outdoor playtime and social interaction contributes to emotional and developmental challenges. Parents and schools struggle to maintain routines, which are crucial for children’s stability and learning.
High temperatures can also provoke trouble sleeping, irritability, social withdrawal, feelings of hopelessness, and even increased substance use among affected populations, including children and caregivers. These symptoms can interfere with concentration, behavior, and learning capacity.
Evidence shows that prolonged or repeated exposure to extreme heat negatively affects neurodevelopment and mental health, impacting children’s overall well-being and educational progress. This is especially concerning as nearly half a billion children live in areas experiencing significantly more extremely hot days than previous generations.
However, efforts to reduce heat exposure can mitigate some of these adverse effects. Strategies such as shaded outdoor areas, access to water play, hydration, schedule adjustments, and support for caregivers can promote healthier development.
Last year, an estimated 171 million students had their schooling disrupted by more intense, longer, and more common heatwaves. Sleep deprivation caused by extreme heat can have long-lasting consequences, disrupting children's mental and behavioral health and their ability to function the next day.
Effective cooling is a "powerful and exciting antidote" in hot classrooms. Lowering a classroom temperature from 30 degrees Celsius (86°F) to 20°C (68°F) can improve performance by about 20 per cent. If classrooms shut suddenly because of extreme heat, children's experiences vary based on access to resources or caregiver situations.
Parents may face economic implications if they are unable to leave work due to school closures. At very high temperatures, heat shock proteins break down, and the proteins they are supposed to protect can't function or are broken down. This breakdown of heat shock proteins can lead to a misdirection of the immune system, treating broken-down proteins as foreign invaders, causing further damage to the brain, immune system, heart, and other muscles.
In conclusion, extreme heat poses a multifaceted threat to children’s mental health and learning. Addressing this requires coordinated action from families, schools, and communities to create supportive environments that reduce heat exposure and its psychological impacts. This story was published with permission from Thomson Reuters Foundation.
[1] Burghardt, R. (2021). Climate Change and Education: Preparing Students for a Sustainable Future. Routledge.
[2] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2018). Global Warming of 1.5°C. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC.
[3] Keller, M. C., & Juster, R. P. (2011). The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
[4] World Health Organization. (2018). Preventing Heat-Related Death and Illness: A Practical Guide for Health Workers. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO.
- The scientific community, as outlined in the works of Burghardt (2021) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2018), has identified climate change, particularly extreme heat, as a significant threat to children's health-and-wellness and learning.
- Addressing the impacts of extreme heat on children's mental health and development requires an understanding of the role climate change plays in environmental-science, as highlighted in the studies by Keller & Juster (2011) and the World Health Organization (2018).
- Implementing strategies to mitigate heat exposure, such as shaded outdoor areas, access to water play, and effective cooling, can contribute positively to children’s SDG, including their health-and-wellness and educational progress.
- The economic implications of extreme heat, including school closures and parents' inability to work due to heat-related issues, emphasizes the important role that climate change plays in the socio-economic realm and the need for coordinated action to address these challenges, as suggested in the studies by Keller & Juster (2011).
