How did the pandemic affect preschoolers' development? Here's what new research says.

Parents and educators continue to grapple with the far-reaching effects of the pandemic on young people, from teens who missed out on major milestones, to the toll Zoom classes took on students' mental health and grades, to concerns about the lack of socialization most "COVID babies" and toddlers experienced during their pivotal early years. While recent studies have shed light on the undeniable setbacks experienced by school-age students, new research on the development of toddlers and preschoolers suggests that not all the news is bad. Here's what parents need to know.

What a new study says

In a new study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers suggest that younger children may face fewer challenges than initially feared. Researchers in Canada used data from the Ontario Birth Study collected between February 2018 (pre-pandemic) and June 2022 and focusing on children between the ages of 2 and 4.

The research reveals that preschool-age children exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated improved vocabulary and visual memory skills at age 4 and a half, with no notable difference in social and emotional skills compared to pre-2020 children. Compared to the earlier group, 2-year-olds exposed to the pandemic showed higher-level problem-solving and fine motor skills, but did demonstrate lower personal and social skills.

The senior author of the study, clinical psychologist Mark Wade, tells Yahoo Life that the pandemic “does not appear to have had a profound and irreversible negative impact on all domains of development, or for all kids.” But Wade says that the children studied came from a "relatively socioeconomically advantaged sample." He also underscores the complexity of the picture, and suggests that the pandemic is associated with a combination of both difficulties and advantages.

What else does the research say about pandemic learning loss and children’s development?

There's a lot of research on pandemic learning loss and the impact on K-12 students. According to education specialist Alyson Young of Learning Lab, most learners are about a year behind academically in their core skills. “Kids cannot and did not learn through the online virtual platforms successfully,” says Young. The shift to remote learning was particularly challenging for younger children, ages 5 to 8, who faced not only academic hurdles but setbacks in the development of social skills.

But what about kids who are even younger? Beyond this latest study, the impact of COVID-19 social disruption on preschool-age children's development is largely unknown. In a commentary for JAMA, Morgan Firestein, an associate research scientist in Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry, notes that existing research on the pandemic's effects on child neurodevelopment primarily involves comparing outcomes in children exposed to prenatal maternal COVID-19 infection with those without exposure, or comparing outcomes in children born before and during the pandemic.

Of note: Findings from a systematic review and meta analysis of studies published in JAMA Open Network last year suggested that overall neurodevelopment was not affected in the first year of life for those born or raised during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, being born or raised during the pandemic was associated with a significant risk of communication impairment, regardless of gestational exposure.

And in a 2022 study published in Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, researchers studied post-pandemic developmental scores from charts of 1,024 patients (ages 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months) from two pediatric practices to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infant and toddler development. The results showed only slight differences in developmental scores pre-pandemic versus post-pandemic.

What experts say

While the findings are mixed, concerns about learning loss due to the pandemic are valid, especially in early childhood when foundational skills in literacy, numeracy and social-emotional learning are developed, says Dr. Fae Dopwell, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at Pediatrix Medical Group in Dallas.

Jenny Woo, founder and CEO of Mind Brain Emotion, says that “overall, all studies, including this one, point to a decrease in social and emotional skills.” But she acknowledges that the pandemic’s impact can vary based on individual and socioeconomic factors. “Parents, educators and health care practitioners must not assume that all children are impacted in the same way and to the same degree,” she says. “We must account for social, economic, racial and household factors.”

Dr. Ilan Shapiro, chief health correspondent at AltaMed Health Services, takes a more optimistic view. He believes that initial fears about the impact on children's education and social development during the pandemic existed within a “panic mode.”

"The good news is that [young] kids are extremely adaptable,” he says. “And if we give them the opportunity to grow and the tools for that, they will recover fast.”

The takeaway

Parents might be wondering whether this recent research suggests that toddlers and preschoolers who lived through the pandemic are in a more advantageous position for recovery than school-aged children. In response, Wade says it’s important to recognize that the pandemic may not have universally negative effects on all children, nor has it uniformly affected global development. It is essential to recognize varied experiences, he says. “We don’t know how well these effects would replicate across more diverse groups,” he notes. “There is a lot of evidence for those negative impacts, as well.”

Wade affirms that the pandemic has been a “terrible and derailing experience — we have a lot of evidence for this in school-age kids and adolescents in particular,” he says.

Despite valid worries about pandemic-related learning setbacks, there is still hope. Parents can play a vital role in aiding children's recovery from pandemic learning loss by modeling skills like adaptive coping, emotional regulation and healthy communication, according to Woo. “Quality time and interaction between parents and preschoolers can not only buffer pandemic learning loss but also accelerate children’s cognitive development, as demonstrated in this study,” she says.

Children also thrive when surrounded by caregivers who “create safe, stable, nurturing and stimulating environments,” says Wade. Such settings not only promote healthy development but also serve as protective shields against the impact of stress and adversity. Dopwell echoes this outlook on resilience, pointing out that neuroplasticity suggests children, especially those ages 5 and under, are highly adaptable.

Ultimately, more research is needed — but experts are hopeful that this will provide answers on how the youngest kids have been affected by the pandemic, and how parents can help mitigate any setbacks.