Young children experience the world as an ‘environment of relationships’, which affect virtually all aspects of their development, according to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. However, children of the pandemic experienced very little social contact outside the home during lockdowns, and early years practitioners are perfectly placed to observe how these children have been affected.
Lecturer, author and trainer Dr Mine Conkbayir explains, ‘The fundamental importance of social connections in early childhood simply cannot be overstated.
‘Children benefit from abundant social contact both with other children and adults, developing essential skills such as communication, co-operation, taking turns, sharing, negotiating, empathising, creating and following rules and managing conflict, while learning about social cues and social norms, increasing a sense of belonging and resilience, and decreasing stress.
‘The brain is a social organ. Without quality interactions and stimulation, the brain cannot grow or develop optimally, with existing synaptic connections dying. Human connections create neural connections.’
PANDEMIC EFFECT
A report by Home-Start UK, Home is Where We Start From, found a range of concerns expressed by parents about the impact of reduced social contact on their children.
- Over a third (36 per cent) said their children had not coped well
- Over three-quarters (79 per cent) said their children needed more attention during the last year
- Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) said their baby had become clingier
- Almost half (47 per cent) said their baby was crying more or experiencing dysregulation (expressed in the report as having more tantrums)
Meanwhile, communication charity i-CAN raised concerns about the development of language skills in children, especially those with special educational needs and disabilities, in its report Speaking Up For the Covid Generation.
Becky Saunders, head of policy and development at Home-Start UK, explains, ‘The ordinary separations and transitions, experiencing new environments, and negotiations with peers around sharing toys or playing together, were all disrupted because of pandemic restrictions.
‘Children learn to manage these experiences, and the feelings they stir up, through the ordinary, everyday repetitions that are supported by caregivers.
‘In normal times, lots of small new experiences will have been added to incrementally, building up trust that what is new is OK, that some positive stress, such as being in a new place, is manageable with the support and scaffolding of close relationships to help with the feelings and give the experience meaning.
‘But for many children, these incremental new experiences have been superseded by a rush of new experiences all at once, sometimes with little time, opportunity or support to adjust.’
POSITIVE EXPERIENCES
The effects felt by children vary drastically, according to the ‘No one wants to see my baby’ report by the Parent-Infant Foundation, Home-Start UK and Best Beginnings.
The report found that many children actually had positive experiences of the pandemic, as they were able to bolster the key relationship with their primary caregiver. ‘For some families, those early lockdowns were idyllic,’ says Sally Hogg, deputy chief executive of the Parent-Infant Foundation. ‘Children got played with, both parents were there for bedtime, dads in effect had a kind of extended paternity leave. So there were some lovely stories.’
For the youngest children, some of whom were born in lockdown, problems such as lack of baby groups and limited face-to-face contact with health professionals have been identified, but the benefit of uninterrupted time with parents, in many cases, made up for this.
‘Generally, for babies, all the evidence says if you’ve got happy, nurturing relationships with your parents in those early months of life, that gives you a good foundation on which to build and thrive,’ Hogg explains.
LONG-TERM IMPACT
However, Home-Start UK found that parents felt their children aged four or five fared significantly worse than younger children, while the pandemic exacerbated existing inequalities more widely.
‘There are families where the level of stress and adversity faced during lockdown was much greater, and they were not able to re-engage with the world as quickly,’ says Hogg. ‘The pandemic has lasted longer and cut deeper for those children, so there is more of a risk that it might have long-term impact, as parents are less able to buffer what is going on.’
Some children may have returned to settings more withdrawn or anxious after lockdowns, says Conkbayir.
‘Many children developed anxiety and depression during the pandemic, and this must not be dismissed,’ she says. ‘I would encourage practitioners to be especially observant of children’s behaviours and responses to others. It is important to not pressure any child into doing something because it is “right”, but do what is right for them individually.’
HOW TO HELP
Many settings have been working hard to minimise the effects of lockdown on children.
Saunders notes, ‘Some children benefited from having video calls with nursery practitioners into their homes, singing songs, doing yoga or just saying hello and talking online. This helped children become familiar with adults they are now seeing in nurseries.’
Home-Start UK suggests children create ‘relational bridges’ between home and setting, such as taking their favourite toy or a heart cut out of fabric or paper in with them, or something that smells like home.
And it is vital to support children whose communication skills might still be behind. ‘Practitioners may have to compensate for children being at different developmental stages to those they would normally be used to, and have enough sensitivity and flexibility to deal with that,’ Hogg says.
TRAUMA
Furthermore, some children will still be processing trauma linked to the threat of a pandemic.
Conkbayir explains, ‘Fears around cross-contamination and dying are still very real concerns for many children and their families, so practitioners should take this into consideration. Lots of age- and stage-appropriate conversations and stories can be invaluable in enabling children to express their thoughts and feelings in ways that are non-pressurising.’
Hogg agrees, ‘We need to help children with the trauma they may have experienced through reflective practice and conversations about emotional and social experiences and needs. This isn’t new, and enlightened professionals in good settings will be doing it anyway, but it is going to be tested now more than ever.’
CASE STUDY: Featherstone Primary and Nursery School in west London
Assistant head Natatja Bauer says children returned from lockdown noticeably changed by their time away.
‘Certainly, attention and listening skills suffered,’ she explains. ‘Children are not able to retain as much information. They haven’t had the practice. While they were at home, they were using tablets and screens a lot more than they would have, so there wasn’t the interaction and communication they would normally have.
‘Basic communication strategies, like recognising somebody else is talking in a conversation, so not talking over them, were also missing. In a family unit, you don’t necessarily wait to talk, you might all talk over each other, whereas in a social situation, there are certain etiquettes you need to follow.’
Speech and language delay was also exacerbated at the setting. ‘Without things like children’s groups, parents, especially first-time parents without extended family, have been learning by themselves. They haven’t been able to see doctors or health visitors face-to-face, and speech and language difficulties and learning needs have not been picked up,’ Bauer says.
Staff tried to keep communicating with children via home learning, home visits, and a food bank set up on site.
Since children returned, staff have run workshops with parents and taken children to local outdoor spaces.
However, Bauer says the children have continued to surprise them. ‘We found they were dying to get back with other children, and immediately wanted to play and interact with each other again.’
FURTHER INFORMATION
Eating well
Keeping well hydrated is important. Xanthi Maragkoudaki, Early Years Nutrition Partnership registered nutrition professional, considers how to encourage children to drink plenty of water
As we move towards the summer and the temperature is increasing, it is vital to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated improves our brain function, digestion, nutrient transition and our joints.
For children it is even more important to stay hydrated as a higher proportion of their bodies are made up of water. Children are less able to regulate fluids in their bodies and less tolerant to heat, therefore, they are more at risk of dehydration, particularly when they are more physically active.
However, children, and particularly young children, often forget to drink water or are unable to explain that they are thirsty. A dry mouth, few tears, drowsiness, dark and reduced urine and, in babies, a sunken soft spot (fontanelle) are common signs of dehydration.
Here are some tips to help children stay hydrated in the summer months:
- Always have a water station available to the children to visually remind them to get some water.
- We recommend free flow cups at water stations, as beakers can be harmful to teeth. Having a jug to self-serve also promotes independence.
- To stop cups getting confused, encourage children to decorate theirs with stickers or other decorations – this may also make them more keen to drink from it.
- Offer verbal reminders to drink water, especially before and after physical activity on hot days.
- Make sure you only offer water between meals to get the children used to drinking it. Do not add any flavours to the water because this could get them used to only drinking sweetened water.
- Eat your water! For snacks, offer fruits and vegetables with high concentrations of water such as watermelon and cucumber, so that their consumption contributes to their total water intake. Whole fruits are always preferable to juices or smoothies.
- Keep it cool! Children prefer cooler water in the summer months, so adding some ice cubes or keeping it in the fridge can help children drink more and stay cooler.
- As a rule of thumb:
- Children 1 to 3 years old need about 5 to 6 cups of water a day.
- Children 4 to 8 years old need about 7 cups of water a day.
If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this column or any other matter around early years nutrition, please contact Jonathan Lucas at hello@eynpartnerhip.org to arrange a conversation with one of the EYNP’s registered nutrition professionals. For more information, go to www.eynpartnership.org.
