The initial research is out—and it’s showing a worrying picture. Babies born during the pandemic lag behind in terms of development compared to babies born before the pandemic.

The Studies

Pediatric researchers at the New York–Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City sought to find out whether there was any difference in development between babies born before and during the pandemic.
Comparing a group of babies born before the pandemic to those born during the pandemic, the researchers found out that pandemic babies severely lag behind in terms of cognitive and motor skills development.
Meanwhile, another study conducted by researchers at Brown University’s Advanced Baby Imaging Lab in Providence, Rhode Island showed pandemic babies from 3 months to 3 years scored far lower, with as much as 2 standard deviation points, than babies born in the previous years.
They had the babies take tests that indicate their early learning abilities such as motor skills (standing, walking) and cognitive skills (language, puzzles).
What they found out was that pandemic babies from low-income families suffered the most developmental delay. In terms of sex, baby boys lagged behind girls. Furthermore, gross motor skills were more affected.

Factors That Affect Infant Development

Preliminary research suggests these 3 factors that could have contributed to the considerable slowing down of development of pandemic babies.

Stressful pregnancy

As the pandemic started, expecting mothers were naturally more stressed with the uncertainty and dangers the coronavirus brought with it.

Lockdowns

Imposed lockdowns also isolated most families. Lockdowns also forced more early childhood centers to close, thereby further limiting and isolating babies and young children from secondary caregivers and early childhood learning environments.

Limited social interaction

Aside from being kept away from learning environments, most pandemic babies were also largely limited in terms of social interactions. Whereas babies born before the pandemic would have seen more strangers’ faces ranging from their relatives like grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to local neighbors and peers, pandemic babies’ source of social interaction largely remains to be their parents and siblings, if they have any.
Even when babies see and interact with strangers, masks limit what they see on a strangers’ face, taking away the opportunity to study others’ facial expressions in full detail. This has not only affected pandemic babies but also pandemic toddlers whose crucial formative years have been largely affected by the restrictions imposed due to coronavirus.

Reason for Hope

Despite these worrying results, there’s still a reason for hope that can be gleaned from previous studies.
For example, babies born to parents who experienced significant stress during the 2011 Queensland floods showed to have slower cognitive development at 6 months of age. However, after adequate parental support, these developmental delays disappeared at 30 months of age.
Childcare providers and group care have also been shown to aid in making pandemic babies catch up in terms of development. Group care given to children from 8 months up to 3 years indicates better language development. and executive functioning skills.
Despite numerous studies coming out documenting these developmental delays, researchers remain optimistic and hopeful that babies with brains of high plasticity will suffer no to little effects due to the pandemic.
While the effects of the pandemic on young children is yet to be seen fully, as what the COVID Generation Research Alliance (COVGEN) hopes to do, everyone involved in a young child’s development can all do their part in lessening the impacts of the pandemic and ensuring this generation gets a fair chance at developing normally.
And this is where childcare providers can step in and help pandemic babies and children catch up on their development. As the second most important caregiver for babies and young children, childcare providers can help in keeping children on track to hit development milestones.