What other concerns do parents of pandemic babies have? Here is the second half of the top 20 child development concerns parents have for their babies born and raised during the pandemic. Read the first half here.

11. Attention span/ concentration

According to a The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) research, 66.1% of 2-5 year old children worsened in at least one domain of mental health. They considered the domains depression, anxiety, irritability, attention span, hyperactivity, and obsessions/compulsions.
The researchers surmised it could be due to disruptions in daily routines as routines are very important for young children in their development process.

12. Self-awareness — such as laughing, making themselves known

13. Non-verbal communication — such as pointing, nodding etc.

Non-verbal communication is just as important as vocal communication. Young children express their understanding of their environment mostly through non-verbal communication at first as they slowly develop their verbal skills. However, with fewer things or events and variations to react to, they may appear less animated compared to children in previous generations.

14. Memory — ability to recall things that have happened or facts about people

As the days seemed to blend in with little to no variation, it is much harder for young children to distinguish the difference among the days passing them by or recalling memories of what happened the day or week before.
This is where parents can come in by reminiscing with their young children about events, activities or thoughts their young children had. This also helps young children have a better well-being as they grow up.

15. Recognizing faces

Even when being shown pictures of relatives, pandemic babies and toddlers have a longer and harder time adjusting and warming up to relatives. Some parents even report what used to only take hours now takes days before their pandemic baby or toddler becomes friendly with their grandparents, aunts and uncles.

16. Imagination — ability to play

Imagination is fed by outside stimuli drawing on multiple varied sources. And with young children limited to their homes and yards for the most part of the last two years, the part of the world they see is limited to screens, whether it’s on a digital device or through their windows.

17. Sport/ exercise habits

Limited space means limited room for movement as well. As young children are confined to smaller spaces, and are rarely allowed to go outdoors, their movement is severely restricted. However, parents do their best to help their children move more and develop their gross motor skills.

18. Listening

While screen time has definitely increased and been prolonged for young children, with digital devices standing in as digital babysitter for some children, it also has made young children more passive in terms of listening. While in a childcare setting, young children will not only be listening to teachers and caregivers requests and instructions, they will also be expected to follow or act based on what they’ve heard.
Meanwhile, during the pandemic, while young children do listen to their digital devices, there are fewer opportunities for them to practice active listening.

19. Fine motor skills — such as stacking blocks

20. Muscular/ skeletal development

Again, limited space means limited movement. While children of pre-pandemic generations were given more space and freedom to explore outdoors and be more active unhampered by the threat of getting infected with coronavirus, the pandemic generation of young children simply just do not have as many opportunities to exercise their young bodies as much.
Disruptions to childcare services also severely limits their opportunities in engaging in more physical activities alongside their peers. While parents can play with their children to encourage them to be more active, parents are also exhausted with all the stresses the pandemic has brought to them.

As parents try their best to give their young children the most normal early childhood experiences other previous generations of young children were entitled to, it can be hard as a parent to not worry about whether their child is missing out or being left behind in terms of developmental milestones.
However, as experts have pointed out, children are resilient especially at an early age. Their brains learn how to adapt and catch up with their peers. While it’s still early to know whether the pandemic will have a lasting impact on pandemic babies, we can hope that with proper guidance and support from all caregivers ranging from parents to early childhood educators, these generations of young children will grow up as normal as possible.