Steven Blaustein PhD, CCC, BCS-CL
Board Certified Specialist- Child Language and Associate Professor Touro University
The Meeting House - Advisory Board Member
Since its inception in 2008 The Meeting House, through its programs, activities and skilled, dedicated professionals, has provided a resource for social emotional learning and worked to reinforce the core values of community and connection. The Meeting House has created and maintains a safe and supportive place where our children can learn and grow.
The Covid19 pandemic resulted in a worldwide disruption of many, if not most, of the basic day to day routines and behaviors we often take for granted. Certainly, the fundamental concepts of community and connection were shattered in an unprecedented manner. Through quarantine, separation, shutting down schools, businesses and institutions, mandated lock downs and covering our faces with masks, the fundamental requisites needed for face to face socialization and connection were disrupted in unprecedented ways. Smiles, frowns, expressions of joy and tears of sadness were hidden behind masks and face shields that we clung to in order to preserve our lives.
As we continue to emerge from the life altering impacts of Covid19, we are seeing their effects, both individually and as a society, that have changed us all. As a speech language pathologist with a specialty in child language and social skills I am witnessing the impact of the quarantine on young children. Initially, I heard the concerns and questions from parents and caregivers regarding developmental lags in their children's language, play and social skills. Later, as schools reopened I began to hear many stories and observations anecdotally from teachers, school directors, principals, therapists and related child care professionals about changes that were being observed in these “Covid Kids'' when compared to peer groups attending preschools, programs and being seen prior to the pandemic. We are now seeing a rapidly emerging interdisciplinary research literature objectively investigating the effects of the pandemic’s effects on various aspects of child development. I would like to share some of what we are learning and beginning to analyze about how our children and our families were impacted by the changes in our routines created by Covid19. The current research presented will be just the tip of the iceberg in looking at how powerful COVID19 was on society.
Researchers are looking into the impact of Covid19 on social and emotional skills of children. Winnie et al (2022) investigated the characteristics of children aged 2 through 12 who were perhaps “more susceptible” to being negatively impacted by Covid19. Results of online questionnaires revealed that children with mental health issues, chronic and acute health issues and special education needs were more vulnerable and sensitive to the negative impacts of Covid19. Children with hearing loss and those receiving remedial services were also more proportionately negatively impacted. It is not surprising to note that additional findings revealed that children who spent extended time on electronic devices were also more negatively affected. The effects of technology, screen time and texting were the subject of a symposium sponsored by the Meeting House years before we heard of COVID19.
Numerous additional peer reviewed articles confirmed the occurrence of higher incidences of anxiety, depression, behavioral problems and stress in children following the Covid19 quarantine. These objective studies, primarily conducted through large numbers of questionnaires highlight an increased number of identifiable stressors during the pandemic. Many of these were tied to social and financial difficulties. Results of these stressors, including disruptions in sleep and physical activity negatively impacted routines of children and families. This is believed to have had an overall negative ramification on general social emotional well-being.
A large study of 3,392 Italian children between the ages of 1 to 10 by Picca et al (2021) looked at the effects of Covid19. Results identified an increase in irritability, sleep and dietary changes in children studied. Results also indicated difficulties with attention and a marked overuse of digital technology. It is encouraging to note that this study also found an improvement in family relationships. Studies have shown that children spent more time on electronic devices, missed greater numbers of school days, missed friends, were more bored and less creative. How could changes such as these, influencing the roots of our children’s world, not result in both overt and hidden changes in emotions, feelings, language and behavior to varying degrees depending on individual age, circumstance and experiences. Negative behaviors noted during the lockdown included aggression, hyperactivity, overeating and frequent crying. The results of distance learning remain questionable and continue to be targeted in emerging research.
Specifically In looking at children's language and related skills, Patel et al confirmed how children's peers and teachers play a large role in language development. They looked at phonemic awareness in first graders. A significant decrease in phonemic awareness skills was exhibited in children studied and was attributed to the lack of sufficient student-teacher interactions. Kartushina et al (2022) looked at vocabulary development in children from 8 to 36 months from 13 countries speaking 12 languages. Research found that children whose caregivers read to them more and had less screen exposure demonstrated larger gains in vocabulary development. It was believed that many children actually gained more words than hypothesized during Covid19 because caregivers were more aware of the children's vocabulary and provided more intense child caregiver interactions over the lockdown. In an interesting study conducted by LENA and Brown University (2022), as part of ongoing research, it was found that babies, born 9 months into COVID19 used fewer prelinguistic vocalizations and demonstrated fewer conversational turns with caregivers analyzed from a database of 3000 children. Numerous researchers are concluding that the environmental changes as a result of COVID19 has had a detrimental effect on children’s language development. Children born during Covid-19 are experiencing developmental delays including the area of language (Snyder et al., 2022; Byrne et al, 2021).
There are many things we are learning as a result of the worldwide pandemic. Joni Mitchell , in one of her iconic songs said “you don't know what you got til its gone.” The important benefits of social interactions, opportunities for peer engagements and play, regular routines face to face contact, recognizing facial expressions, school, the role of teachers, and after school activities and friendships, all combine and interact over time to promote overall development, language acquisition, emotional intelligence and social emotional well-being. Components, long recognized, reinforced and supported by the Meeting House are shown to be critical factors in our children's and our own well-being. Disruptions and interruptions to very basic human interactions, often taken for granted, are now being objectively shown to have caused a varied and wide array of negative impacts on children’s development.Parental stress, isolation, social distancing, disrupted regular in-person school attendance, and increased screen time are all being shown to have negatively impacted children's development including language and behavior. We have much to learn regarding the long lasting impacts of Covid19 but recognizing their effects is an important first step in the process. Having the Meeting House to continue to support our children and families is now more critical than ever.
Covid19 Reference List:
Ali Awan, H., Najmuddin Diwan, M., Aamir, A., Ali, M., Di Giannantonio, M., Ullah, I. & De Berardis, D. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 and the Brain: What Do We Know about the Causality of ‘Cognitive COVID? Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(15), 3441.
Araújo, L. A. D., Veloso, C. F., Souza, M. D. C., Azevedo, J. M. C. D., & Tarro, G. (2021). The potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child growth and development: a systematic review. Jornal de Pediatria, 97, 369-377.
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