They don’t know how to communicate, blow their nose... What are the developmental delays in children during the pandemic

The British Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) has published a report on the impact of two years of lockdowns on the development of children, Daily Mail reports . The conclusions are disappointing: due to the closure of kindergartens and schools, many young children have not developed basic skills. Due to the lack of communication with peers and other people, they hardly get used to the toilet, they do not know how to blow their noses, tie their shoelaces, dress themselves - that is, they do not possess the simplest self-service skills that are taught in preschool institutions.

Because most of these two years, children have seen masked faces, now that the lockdowns have been lifted, they have difficulty interpreting facial expressions - this prevents them from learning how to interact with other people. According to teachers, many are anxious at the sight of human facial expressions - they are not used to it.

Many children suffer from speech delays: the stage when they were supposed to sing songs and tell fairy tales was crumpled. Because of this, their vocabulary is limited, and the self-confidence necessary for communication is lacking. These children spent long hours not with peers and teachers, but in the company of TV, so now many of them imitate the voices of characters in films and television programs.

Physical development also suffered. This is especially true for those children who spent all this time in small apartments in apartment buildings and did not have the opportunity to play sports. OFSTED employees obtained such data based on the study of data from 280 inspections and numerous focus groups.

Parents of young children whose first years have fallen during the pandemic should pay special attention to socializing with them a lot, providing them with the company of other children, playing outdoors, playing sports, going shopping, they said. The lack of all this can lead to problems at school and later in life.