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Using the Ages and Stages-3 (ASQ-3) questionnaire, a measure of children’s progression conducted by caregivers and collected as part of pediatric care, the researchers say they found only slight decreases in communication, problem-solving, and personal, private communication. Social skills and no adjustment in fine or gross motor skills in the youth in the study.
“We found, overall, that even though there are some changes, the sky rarely falls much, and that’s a very vital and reassuring finding,” says Sara Johnson, Ph. D. , M. P. H. , corresponding director of the study. of the Rales Center for Health Integration and Education at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Blanket Fort Foundation Professor of Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Numerous studies, according to researchers, have found that the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown restrictions have disrupted the lives of many other people, including families with young children. Daily life and routines have changed: schools and nurseries have closed, many other people have started to run away from home, and social contact has decreased. Many have experienced increased stress, anxiety, and social isolation due to those adjustments and activity cancellations.
Research has also shown that the pandemic is linked to a decline in young people’s fitness-like quality of life, increased intellectual fitness challenges, decreased sleep, and an increased risk of obesity. However, the pandemic’s effect on the intellectual development milestones of young people in the U. S. The U. S. study remains unclear, in part because studies designed to address them were conducted outside the U. S. In the U. S. , or in small patterns. In the new study, researchers at the Children’s Center tested the development of intellectual prestige in 50,205 children. , ages 0 to 5, drawn from a pattern of more than one million children whose parents or guardians completed ASQ-3. The ASQ-3 assesses children’s intellectual developmental milestones in five skill domains: communication, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, challenge. resolution, and non-public and social skills.
The researchers compared children before the pandemic from 2018 to 2022 and found a reduction in the ASQ-3 score in the areas of communication skills (about 3%), problem-solving skills (about 2%), and personal and social skills. skills (about 2%). They found no changes in fine or gross motor skill spaces. When looking in particular at infants aged 0 to 12 months, similarly modest effects were observed, and there was only a reduction in communication proficiency (about 2%). 3%) and in the problem-solving domain (about 2%).
“We thought it was possible that infants enjoyed the impact less than older children, given that many caregivers were spending more time at home with their very young children,” Johnson says. “But sometimes we’ve seen the same things in babies as we have in older children. “
In addition, given the growing concern and tension between parents and caregivers, the researchers looked at whether parents and caregivers reported more worries about their children during the pandemic, regardless of the level reached, and found that concerns about their children’s hoarding increased only slightly. the pandemic, compared to before the pandemic.
While the researchers say the effects are reassuring, they say the implications for children’s long-term progression are unclear.
“It’s incumbent upon us to continue to monitor the progress of young people of all ages, so that we can sense whether those adjustments have long-term implications for young people or whether new challenging situations arise as young people get older,” Johnson says.
Johnson and his team of researchers say the effects of their study will help plan for long-term public health crises and also demonstrate the importance of strengthening the clinical infrastructure of overburdened health systems in the United States, especially behavioral and developmental pediatricians, who are specially trained to assess and treat developmental problems. These resources will be instrumental in fulfilling the developmental desires of children today and tomorrow.
The researchers cautioned that the study didn’t take into account some variables that could have altered the results, such as prenatal substance abuse and other fitness issues. In addition, premature infants were excluded from the study, which would possibly underestimate the developmental effects of this subgroup. The researchers also ruled out a “selection bias” among physical care providers participating in CHADIS, and there were no comparison teams of young people who were not exposed to COVID-19 restrictions.
In addition to Johnson, the authors of the Johns Hopkins study include Molly Kuehn, Jennifer Lambert, Lauren Klein, Barbara Howard (also of CHADIS Inc. ), Raymond Sturner (also of the Center for the Promotion of Child Development through Primary Care) and Eliana. Perrin. J. Paul Spin of EVERSANA is also an author.
The study was funded through the Johns Hopkins Population Center and its National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Infrastructure Grant (P2CHD042854).
Howard and Sturner are members of the Board of Directors of the Center for the Promotion of Child Development through Primary Care and are paid workers or experts of the Center and CHADIS, Inc. The authors affiliated with Johns Hopkins University did not report any conflicts of interest under Johns Hopkins. University policies.