United States – Research found a “modest” effect on development of infants and toddlers.
Insights from Latest Study
Earlier studies say pandemic regulations had to do with disrupting the lives of many people, among them families with young kids.
Life was not the same anymore as the school and daycare centers were closed, and people worked from home. There was a decline in the number of play dates as well as the number of their social contacts, as reported by HealthDay.
Findings and Reassurance
However, after reviewing more than 50,000 children under the age of 5, researchers stated in their April 22 article in the magazine JAMA Pediatrics that the pandemic had a minimal effect on their development.
“We found, overall, that while there are some changes, the sky is not falling, and that is a really important and reassuring finding,” said the director of the Rales Center for the Integration of Health and Education at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.
The measurement being advanced, the caregivers for all the children were made to complete an instrument of child development often used during pediatric care.
Key Findings
Researchers have examined how the scores of toddlers in 2018 and 2022 differed during the pandemic.
Communication skills were found to decrease 3% among them, problem-solving skills were less than 2% while personal & social skills also decreased by 2%. The motor skills of the toddlers had nothing to do with their performance.
According to the research on infants up to 1, there is a 3% decrease in their communication skills and another 2% decrease in problem-solving.
“We thought it was possible infants might experience less impact than the older kids, given that many caregivers may have spent more time at home with their very young children,” Johnson said. “But we saw generally the same things in infants as we did for older kids.”
Researchers at the same time discovered that caregivers had increased concerns about their children during the pandemic.
Long-Term Implications and Future Research
While this observation might be reassuring, the long-term consequences for the development of the countries affected by the pandemic are uncertain, according to the study’s authors.
“It is important for us to continue to keep an eye on kids of all ages in terms of development, so we can understand whether these changes have longer-term implications for children or if new challenges emerge as children age,” Johnson said in a Hopkins news release, as reported by HealthDay.
Such types of studies may help in preparing for the arrival of a new epidemic in the future as well, Johnson added. In the same way, this study stresses the significance of developmental-behavioral pediatricians who are trained to run regular assessments and treat children whose development has been stifled.