Covid lockdowns have been linked to a surge in babies and toddlers suffering from speech and other developmental issues, the largest study to date has found.
Experts from the University of Edinburgh looked at the impact of successive lockdowns and social distancing measures on more than a quarter of a million babies and toddlers.
They found that the number of children with at least one developmental issue increased by up to 6.6 per cent between March 2020 and August 2021 – the period in which the first coronavirus lockdown began and ended.
Around one in 10 children in the UK has a developmental concern, which can include issues regarding their behaviour, emotional regulation, social skills, or movement, among others.
The authors of the report said the rise could be linked to “reduced social interaction and reduced attendance at early learning and childcare settings” during the period, which play an “important role in children’s development”.
‘Too little, too late’
The study, published in one of the Lancet’s journals, comes just a week after the Covid Inquiry concluded that lockdowns could have been “avoided entirely” if it wasn’t for the “too little, too late” approach of the Conservative government at the time.
Baroness Hallett, the inquiry chairman, said if “stringent restrictions” had been put in place before March 16 2020, some 23,000 lives could have been saved and there might have been no need for a lockdown at all.
Multiple studies have since revealed the lasting impact of lockdowns on children, and in particular, those of school age who had their education disrupted.
The latest research explored the scale of damage to the development of those yet to start school, with 18 months of restrictions coinciding with an increase in developmental issues, including speech and communication, behaviour and problem solving.
The research included about 258,000 children aged 13 to 15 months and 27 to 30 months in Scotland, where restrictions were the same as the rest of the UK.
This accounted for 80 per cent of the children in the country and they were tracked between January 2019 and August 2023 to give pre- and post-lockdown trends.
The study is the largest analysis of data assessing Covid-19 restrictions on child developmental outcomes in Europe.
Researchers found that the proportion of children with developmental concerns remained higher than pre-pandemic levels even after restrictions ended in August 2021.
Of particular concern was the proportion of children aged 13 to 15 months, with issues continuing to rise even after lockdowns ended.
Among those aged 27 to 30 months, the trend stopped increasing but remained above pre-pandemic levels, researchers said.
Reduced social interaction
Dr Iain Hardie, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh, told The Telegraph the analysis was modelled on “the weekly proportion of children who had developmental concerns identified by health visitors”.
He said the models found that restrictions put in place in March 2020 led to a weekly increase in the proportion of children with “developmental concerns” of between 0.076 per cent and 0.091 per cent.
“To put this into context, this would correspond to an estimated 5.5 to 6.6 percentage points increase overall when considered in the context of the full 72 weeks of lockdown/social distancing measures between March 2020 and August 2021,” he said, adding that the “models adjust for the pre-existing downward trend before the pandemic”.
Dr Hardie said a reason for the observed increase in concerns could be linked to “reduced social interaction and reduced attendance at early learning and childcare settings”.
However, he said there could also be links to the pandemic “impacting parental financial stability and mental health”.
Dr Hardie added: “We also cannot rule out the influence of other factors that were occurring at the same time as the pandemic.”
The study was conducted in partnership with Public Health Scotland as part of the wider Covid-19 Health Impact on long-term Child Development in Scotland study.
It was published in the Lancet Regional Health – Europe journal.