Some children may need extra support in school in the coming years. This is according to a study from the University of East Anglia published in the journal Child Development.
Researchers examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns affected the development of young children.
The results show that certain children developed important mental skills more slowly than normal.
This particularly applies to abilities such as controlling impulses, switching between tasks, and maintaining focus, skills known as executive functions.
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Data from several years
The study is based on a research project that followed 139 children from around 2.5 years old to 6.5 years old.
Many of the families had already participated in the project before the pandemic. This allowed researchers to compare the children’s development before and after the lockdowns.
The children’s abilities were measured continuously using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale.
The study also shows that differences between children often persist over time. Children with strong abilities early in life generally maintained an advantage later on.
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The affected cohort
The results point in particular to one group of children. According to the research, children who began the first year of school in 2020 had more difficulty developing their executive functions than children who were still in kindergarten when the pandemic began.
The first year of school typically includes children aged four to five. During this period, children usually learn classroom routines and how to cooperate with others.
When schools closed during the pandemic, many of these opportunities disappeared.
At the same time, the study shows that children from families with lower socioeconomic backgrounds generally scored lower on the test, a pattern that has also been found in previous research.
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Sources: Medical Xpress, and Child Development.
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