Pandemic babies' are indeed different and not in a good way
Written By : Isra Zaman
Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
Published On 2022-10-12 03:30 GMT | Update On 2022-10-12 03:30 GMT
The enforced isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns may have impeded the social communication skills of babies born during these periods, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.Before the advent of coronavirus vaccines, mass lockdowns and mask wearing were deployed to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection, limiting babies' interactions with...
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The enforced isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns may have impeded the social communication skills of babies born during these periods, suggests research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Before the advent of coronavirus vaccines, mass lockdowns and mask wearing were deployed to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection, limiting babies' interactions with people outside the home and potentially restricting their access to visual and facial cues for language development.
To gauge the potential impact these measures might have had, the researchers assessed 10 parentally reported developmental outcomes for 309 'pandemic' babies at 12 months of age.
The babies were part of the CORAL (Impact of CoronaVirus Pandemic on Allergic and Autoimmune Dysregulation in Infants Born During Lockdown) study, and had all been born during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic (March-May 2020) in Ireland.
The 10 developmental outcomes included the ability to: crawl; side step along furniture; stand alone; pick up tiny objects with thumb and index finger (pincer grip); stack bricks; finger feed; know their own name; express one definite and meaningful word; point at objects; and to wave 'bye-bye'.
These outcomes were compared a year after birth with those of 1629 infants from the BASELINE (Babies After SCOPE: Evaluating the Longitudinal Impact using Neurological and Nutritional Impact) study, which included babies born in Ireland between 2008 and 2011.
Comparison of the outcomes showed that slightly fewer CORAL study infants had reached social communication developmental milestones, as reported by their parents than had BASELINE study infants.
More CORAL study infants were able to crawl but fewer expressed one definite and meaningful word could point and could wave bye-bye .
CORAL study infants were less likely to have one definite and meaningful word by the age of 12 months, less likely to be able to point, and less likely to be able to wave bye-bye.
They were still more likely to be crawling at the age of 12 months than their BASELINE study counterparts, however, which might be because they were more likely to have spent more time at home and on the ground rather than out of the home in cars and strollers, suggest the researchers.
In a bid to explain the other findings, the researchers suggest that lockdown measures may have reduced the repertoire of language heard and the sight of unmasked faces speaking to them, while also curtailing opportunities to encounter new items of interest, which might prompt pointing, and the frequency of social contacts to enable them to learn to wave bye-bye.
Reference:
Dr Susan Byrne et al, Social communication skill attainment in babies born during the COVID- 19 pandemic: a birth cohort study doi 10.1136/archdischild-2021-323441 Journal: Archives of Disease in Childhood
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