A new study published in the journal ‘Language Development Research’ shows the impact of isolation on children.
Covid-19 has forced children to stay indoors and isolated, more than ever. As kids grow, the formative growing years of the child are very precious as they learn to touch, speak, hear, feel, explore and see things beyond their homes. Unfortunately, this opportunity had been snatched from them, due to covid restrictions. A new study published in the journal ‘Language Development Research’ shows the impact of isolation on children.
A study led by the University of Oslo was an international consortium with researchers from 13 countries that investigated the impact of Covid-19 related social isolation measures on toddlers between 8 and 36 months and 2,200 young infants. Their findings provided insight into the effects of lockdown on kids.
A second study was led by the University of Gottingen with the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland which was published in the journal ‘Scientific Reports’ on the increase in screen-time during the lockdown and its implications on language development.
Soon after the lockdown had begun in early March 2020 across 13 countries, parents were asked to fill in an online questionnaire about their child’s age, other siblings, vocabulary development and exposure to different languages. Parents were again contacted at the end of the lockdown, where they were asked about the activities they undertook with their kids in the lockdown period, the amount of time their kids had access to the screen during and before lockdown, along with questions on how much screen time they had for themselves and their attitude towards the kid’s screen time. Parents were also given a checklist of standardized vocabulary, which indicated the number of words their kids said/or understood at the beginning and end of the lockdown so that the number of words gained could be calculated.
The study found that kids who were read more frequently learned more words compared to their peers who read less frequently. However, kids that had more exposure to screen learned to say fewer words compared to their peers, who got less screen time.
Children who were exposed to more screen time during the lockdown were reported to have gained more words compared to pre-pandemic levels.
According to the author, young kids who had no online schooling requirements had increased screen time during the lockdown which helped them learn more words, compared to the time before the pandemic.
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