According to an OFSTED report, babies and young children are experiencing “particularly worrying” developmental issues due to years of masking.
OFSTED is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, and is a UK government department.
This week Ofsted has published a new briefing on the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on children, using evidence from inspections of childminder and nursery settings that have taken place this year. https://t.co/97eo2g7Ehp
— PACEYchildcare (@PACEYchildcare) April 5, 2022
The report, which gathered data from 70 childcare providers in England, described how nurseries have been raising concerns over babies who have “limited vocabularies” and which are struggling to understand ordinary facial expressions.
“Some babies have struggled to respond to basic facial expressions, which may be due to reduced contact and interaction with others during the pandemic,” said the report.
“Children have missed out on hearing stories, singing and having conversations. One provider commented that children appear to have spent more time on screens and have started to speak in accents and voices that resemble the material they have watched.”
Additionally, the briefing added that masking of adults was believed to have had a negative impact on the children’s development.
“Children turning two years old will have been surrounded by adults wearing masks for their whole lives and have therefore been unable to see lip movements or mouth shapes as regularly,” the Ofsted briefing said.
“Some providers have reported that delays to children’s speech and language development have led to them not socialising with other children as readily as they would have expected previously.”
Amanda Spielman, OFSTED’s chief inspector, spoke to the BBC about issues young children are facing in the aftermath of the pandemic, including a disproportionate struggle with toilet-training.
“We are seeing difficulties with social interaction and social confidence,” she said.
“Children just behind where you would normally expect them to be. And also in physical development – crawling, walking and perhaps related to that also greater obesity.”
Childcare providers reported that babies were “particularly anxious and not used to seeing different faces” when dropped off at daycare by parents.
“Children were lacking confidence and were shy in childcare settings, especially when taking part in group activities,” the document read.
“Even older children who would have usually settled were still upset when dropped off.”