The COVID-19 social restrictions caused significant changes to the development of children aged six or younger, retarding their acquisition of a key social skill.
A new study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests the lockdowns and other measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 did serious, potentially irreversible damage to preschoolers.
“It was remarkable to see the drop in kids’ performance,” said developmental psychology Professor Rose Scott , the lead author of the study.
“On one of the tasks in my lab, children tested before the pandemic could pass at 2 and a half years old. Right after the lockdowns, we were seeing 5-year-olds not passing it.”
The researchers tested young children for a social skill called “false-belief understanding,” the ability to recognize that other people can be wrong. Acquisition of this skill is considered to be a crucial step in distinguishing mind from reality, and allows children to develop skills for cooperation, communication and learning.
Current research shows that false-belief abilities undergo important developments in a child’s first five years. A child who lacks these cognition skills may grow into a student who struggles to get along with peers or who finds academic tasks harder.
Results were compared with results from children of the same age that were taken before the pandemic.
Children in the pre-lockdown group scored significantly higher in their tasks. In one task, 80% of five-year-olds in the pre-lockdown group passed, whereas only 63% of the children in the post-lockdown group did. Children from poorer backgrounds fared even worse, with only 51% of the post-lockdown children passing the same task.
What’s more, further testing revealed that the deficits in false-belief understanding persisted. Children who lacked the ability did not acquire it later.
The authors believe the pandemic stress and isolation were largely responsible for the differences observed.