The effect of the pandemic on children is getting worse as they approach school time: many are showing signs of academic and developmental retardation. A century less likely to include age-appropriate skills, according to interviews with more than 20 teachers, doctors, and early adolescence experts in the US, was depicted in interviews with more than 20 educators, pediatricians, and early childhood experts.
Additionally, a variety of clinical studies have revealed that some young children’s early development may have been affected by the pandemic. Kids were more affected than women, studies have found. According to Dr. Jaime Peterson, a physician at Oregon Health and Science University,” I positively think children born next have had development challenges compared to previous years.” ” We asked them to use masks, no see people, never play with children. We really severed those interactions, and you do n’t get that time back for kids”.
Researchers said some aspects of the pandemic impacted young children- parental anxiety, less exposure to people, lower preschool attendance, more time on screens and less time playing. Brook Allen, in Martin, Tennessee, has taught school for 11 decades. This year, for the first time, she said, many students could scarcely speak, some were never toilet trained, and many did not have the fine motor skills to hold a pencil. Children do n’t play with imagination or seek out other children as much as they once did, according to Michaela Frederick, a pre-K teacher for students with learning delays in Tennessee. Because students ‘ fine motor skills were n’t developed enough, she had to replace small building materials in her classroom with large soft blocks.
The inability to control their emotions among her children in Florida, according to Lissa O’Rourke, is perhaps the biggest thing she has noticed.” It was knocking over couches, it was throwing points, it was hitting their contemporaries, hitting their teachers,” she said. One reason for fresh children’s problems, researchers say, is parental pressure during the pandemic. A child who is exposed to more anxiety will show more detection on brain imaging images in” the components of that baby’s head that rely on fear and concentrate on aggression”, said Rahil D. Briggs, a child psychologist. That leaves less energy for parts of the brain focused on language, exploration and learning, she said. Time on TVs also increased during the pandemic as parents squeezed work and kids at home. This may have an impact on fine motor skills and attention spans, according to experts.
Researchers believe there are reasons to be optimistic about the pandemic’s long-term effects, but it’s too early to say whether young children will experience them. ” It is absolutely possible to catch up”, said Dr. Dani Dumitriu, a pediatrician at Columbia. Sarrah Hovis, a preschool teacher in Michigan. said she has seen great progress. By the end of this year, some of her students were counting to 100, and even adding and subtracting. ” If the kids come to school”, she said,” they do learn”.
