As the new year starts and kids return to school, teachers have noticed that preschoolers and first-graders are struggling with basic learning skills and development. This has led early childhood experts to investigate how the pandemic has effected the new generation of youth in schools.
“I have done an extensive study and conducted interviews with educators and parents, and some of the common concerns that were mentioned were increased difficulty of paying attention, emotional instability, increased issues with separation anxiety, and overall social skills,” Alia Wong, a reporter for the Associated Press Education Reporting Network, said while explaining what she found during her interviews. “The issues themselves aren’t a problem as most children deal with them during development, but the increase in the frequency of these issues raises concerns.
According to the NY Times, children who were babies during the pandemic are going through what their experts consider a “pandemic tsunami,” which refers to the lack of development of kids entering the education system. “I think children born then have had developmental challenges compared to prior years,” said Dr. Jaime Peterson, a pediatrician at Oregon Health and Science University, whose research is on kindergarten readiness. “We asked them to wear masks, not see adults, not play with kids. We severed those interactions, and you don’t get that time back for kids.”
According to the Curriculum Association, while White students have matched pre covid test scores, Black and Hispanic students have fallen behind even by two grade levels compared to pre-COVID test scores. Reading and math have been on the decline across the nation since 2021. Kids in low-income communities also have seen a drastic decline in their test scores.
“The process of brain development for kids that helps with emotional regulation, social skills, learning, among other stuff, happened during a time where kids were socially isolated, witnessed their parents stressed out daily, weren’t allowed to be outside, it stunted their growth exceptionally,” Sara Johnson, a Professor in Pediatric Population Health and Health Equity Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said explaining that this phenom isn’t overly surprising. “If you look at kids that grew up during the SARS pandemic in 2003 or the Recession in 2008, all of those kids had development and behavioral issues from the extreme environmental changes.”
Johnson continued stating that generalization only tells half the truth as each child has to be studied as an independent variable to assess their needs. “ Studies are a mixed bag because they don’t take into account social and behavioral cognitive skills and only focus on readiness. We are pretty bad at overall assessments, and the only data collected are from schools, and we know that not every child is participating in these studies.” Johnson recommends parents provide kids with critical support in all areas to bring them up to speed academically and socially.
