The impact of Covid on children’s development

Among the many problems caused by Covid-19 across the globe, a particular cause for alarm among parents was how it impacted on the development of their children, with those born at the peak of the pandemic during lockdown a major concern.

Others missed out on vital years of education and socialising. Families endured long periods of isolation, and the majority of parents were left feeling helpless due to having no experience in home schooling or knowing how fill the growing gaps in their children’s lives.

Throughout the pandemic, scientists have continued to do research into the consequences of Covid restrictions on children in particular, with a particular focus on the effects of being unable to socialise in ways previously taken for granted.

“They couldn’t live a normal life, and still nothing seems normal” – mother of five Hina on the impact of the pandemic on her children

The first thing which took a toll on children was the closing of schools, something which could not be avoided due to the outbreak of the virus spreading so rapidly.

Research by integrative behavioural nurse Kelly Smith revealed that after the outbreak of the virus, it became more common for teachers and parents to seek support regarding social skills for children. Smith explained that it is hard to pinpoint whether it is all down to the disruption of children’s’ schedules and schools closing, however this definitely did take its toll.

Research analysing the communication and motor skills of babies up to six months old took place at the New York Presbytarian Morgan Stanley’s Children Hospital, led by paediatrician Dani Dumitriu and her team.

After taking in data from neighbouring hospitals, Dumitriu was stunned at the results. Research showed that just based on the environment of the pandemic itself, infants born during the pandemic scored lower, on average, on tests of gross motor, fine motor and communication skills compared to those born before it. Dumitriu stressed: “We’re talking about hundreds of millions of babies.”

Research by child and adolescent psychologist from Los Angeles, Sophie Pierce, showed that while some kids have been eager to return, others have struggled with a significant amount of anxiety when it comes to going back to regular school settings.

She explained: “Some kids experienced increased separation anxiety as they had grown accustomed to being around their family more frequently. Other children felt overstimulated and socially anxious upon re-entering their school setting.”

I was able to dig further into the impact of the pandemic on children by speaking to Hina Faheem, a mother of five children aged 3-12. She started off by stating: “They couldn’t live a normal life, and still nothing seems normal.”

When asking Hina if she had noticed a difference in the development of her youngest child, Essa, now aged 3, she said that if Essa did not have siblings born pre-Covid, parenting would have been extremely difficult.

She explained” “Essa’s development targets were met as he has older siblings and was never on his own, it would have effected him if he was the only child as I’ve heard from colleagues who have one child as compared to two or three, as they had someone to interact with and were not lonely… However, it’s easy to see that Covid-19 has impacted them all mentally, I have seen them struggling at times.”

In addition to this, she says that her older children did not find it easy to be educated remotely, as being in a house of 5 children was distracting and made it extremely hard for them to focus at points.

Fortunately for Hina, their education had not resulted in a great loss and there was not a huge dent made in how they were doing learning-wise compared to pre-Covid, the only major issue they had faced according to the pandemic was the discomfort of being distracted at home.

Leading on from this, there have been ways that have been researched into which have been helping the development of children and their behaviour post-Covid, a lot of these methods have been focused upon how parents are able to help their children during this time.

Psychologist Sophie Pierce says that the best thing parents can do to cater towards their children throughout this time is “model social skills in their daily interactions with their child, perhaps by engaging in regular quality time with their child and discussing their days.”

She also suggests: “Parents can also encourage the development of social skills by praising their children when they exhibit positive social skills, such as initiating conversations or showing interest in others.”

Psychologists such as Pierce also suggests that games involving critical thinking are vital in the development of children. For example, an idea which Pierce had was putting a spin on ordinary games such as Connect 4: she explains that adding depth to these ordinary games by changing rules can impact their skills greatly. “This can help children develop some adaptive capacity skills and learn that failure isn’t always a bad thing.”

The pandemic has definitely left its mark on children across the globe. However, research conducted in various areas has shown there are ways to overcome this. With plenty of patience and support, most children will get back to where they would have been pre-Covid.

Feature image by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels.