Covid-19: Children born during the pandemic score lower on cognitive tests

https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n2031

by hncurious • 5 years ago

26 6 5 years ago

cjlars• 5 years ago

Truly massive and sorrowful results if it holds up to review / replication. From the preprint:

Across all measures, we found cognitive scores were significantly reduced during the pandemic by 27 to 37 points (or almost two full standard deviations), p values < 0.01

criticaltinker2• 5 years ago

I agree it's pretty sad but all hope isn't lost - kids are notorious for their neuroplasticity in early years, it's possible that with proper care this generation will catch up to their peers and not suffer any major consequences through their adult life.

criticaltinker2• 5 years ago

These findings may reflect the second and third order consequences of mandatory non-pharmaceutical interventions such as lock-downs, masking, & school/daycare/work closures - which are likely to have a greater impact on poor or uneducated families who lack the resources to effectively compensate for such changes.

Highlights from OP and the cited paper (interesting limitation at the end):

In a longitudinal study of 672 children from Rhode Island that has run since 2011, those born after the pandemic began showed results on the Mullen scales of early learning that corresponded to an average IQ score of 78, a drop of 22 points from the average of previous cohorts.
We find that children born during the pandemic have significantly reduced verbal, motor, and overall cognitive performance compared to children born pre-pandemic. [1]
In terms of effect size, lead author of the longitudinal study and paediatrician Sean Deoni said, “the closest thing we’ve seen in other research — and this is horrible, not a good comparison to be making — is the studies that were done of orphans in Romania. The effects of institutionalisation and lack of interaction on them were profound, but what we’re seeing here is on par with that.”
we find that males and children in lower socioeconomic families have been most affected [1]
“we do have some preliminary data that we’re working on in a separate study using miniature recorders which the infants wear on their chest which measure the interaction between the caregiver and the child, and what we are seeing, anecdotally, is a significant depression in the number of words spoken to kids and, as you can imagine, a massive increase in TV exposure, and a decline in meaningful conversations. Time spent engaged with a caregiver is way down.”
Results highlight that even in the absence of direct SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 illness, the environmental changes associated COVID-19 pandemic is significantly and negatively affecting infant and child development.
One aspect also not investigated here is the impact of mask-wearing by the study staff during child visits and assessments. The inability of infants to see full facial expressions may have eliminated non-verbal cues, muffled instructions, or otherwise altered the understanding of the test questions and instructions.

[1] Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Early Child Cognitive Development: Initial Findings in a Longitudinal Observational Study of Child Health https://www.medrxiv.org/content/medrxiv/early/2021/08/11/202...

amanaplanacanal• 5 years ago

So that last paragraph might be pointing to a completely bogus result, rather than an actual IQ drop. It will be interesting to see follow up studies in the years to come.

blurbleblurble• 5 years ago

Okay so I get that this is a really important result, but I worry about the reflexive, reductionist media narrative that's forming around this as potentially being even more damaging to these children then the pandemic itself.

If anything this just goes to show how dependent these kinds of metrics are on socialization and specific cultural factors. Pegging these children as simply "unintelligent" could be a tragically self fulfilling way to take this result, and sadly I think the ball is already rolling on that.

There's no question that the pandemic will have huge effects on the cognitive, social and emotional development of children of all ages, and I get the concern here. But to just collapse all of these developmental differences down to this kind of hand wavey "they're not that bright" pathology really misses an opportunity to discover and affirm the unique sensitivities and strengths that these children might have the potential to lean into.

Not to mention that they are currently in the process of learning all the stuff they missed out on during quarantine. Yes, in a different order than usual. But no that doesn't mean they're somehow deficient, it means they're going to have to rely on sensibilities that may typically be unfamiliar to those of us who have been socialized in more conventional ways.

I've met some pandemic babies and they all had this calm, quiet sense of fascination and awe in being present with people. Does that mean they're cognitively deficient? Or are they just experiencing life in a radically different way? One that will cause them to develop different sensibilities and ways of interacting with the world?

jobigoud• 5 years ago

Could there be a bias from the fact that not everyone makes babies during a pandemic? Maybe there is only a subset of the whole population that is represented in the parents of the kids.

Covid-19: Children born during the pandemic score lower on cognitive tests

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