Study reveals impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on kindergarteners' development
FILE-A teacher wears a mask and face shield while helping a student during reading class at an elementary school in Connecticut. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
A recent study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development in kindergartner students in the U.S.
The study published in the science journal JAMA Network suggests that kindergartners experienced varying early childhood developmental health trends during the pandemic.
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Researchers explained in their report that during early childhood, younger kids are vulnerable to disruptions like pandemics because of their heightened sensitivity to adversity, their growing coping skills, and reliance on caregivers.
Study finds language and cognitive development declined
Local perspective:
Researchers in the study found kindergartners experienced significant declines in Early Development Instrument (EDI) scores in communication and general knowledge, language and cognitive development, and social competence during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2021 and 2023.
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Scores were drastically lower compared with the prepandemic period between 2018 and 2020 for communication and general knowledge. However, there were no changes found in physical health and well-being scores for kindergartners before and during the pandemic.
According to the study, the findings say that many negative trends observed in kindergarteners’ developmental health during the COVID-19 pandemic were small and existed prior to its onset.
How were findings gathered for the study?
By the numbers:
Researchers studied developmental health trends of 475, 740 kindergarten students at 398 school districts in 19 U.S. states from 2010 to 2023 using the five categories of physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication, and general knowledge. For each of these criteria, researchers graded students using Early Development Instrument (EDI) scores.
What are researchers saying about the data?
Big picture view:
Researchers concluded in their study that their findings bring attention to a trend in kindergartners’ development, both before and during the pandemic, and additional information is needed to interpret why developmental outcomes became worse over time.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by a study published in JAMA Network, which details the researchers findings. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.