Covid-19 pandemic caused lack of communication skills in babies: Research

A recent study by the Harvard Medical School revealed that children born in 2020 lack the necessary communication skills due to Covid-19 pandemic, Livemint reported. After observing more than 21,000 infants, the study concluded that Covid-19-induced lockdowns have impacted the ability to communicate amongst infants.

Due to lack of social interactions during the lockdowns, the infants missed out on important social exposure explains paediatrician Jin Russell. According to him, there are two basic explanations for why the epidemic and lockdowns may have hindered a child's development.

"It is well known that, when parents take their newborns out, they tend to be exposed to a wider variety of words and develop a larger vocabulary. However, there just weren't as many opportunities for parents to take their infants out. The second explanation is that parents were under a lot of stress and less bandwidth. If a parent was at home attempting to balance work and home-schooling older children, they may have had much less time to be attentive to their infant" 1 News quoted Russell 

Another study on the topic revealed that 25 per cent of newborns went a whole year without ever encountering a child their own age. The babies hardly had an opportunity to experience unplanned encounters with neighbours or strangers at playgroups or grocery stores, or wave a simple goodbye.

According to the CORAL research of allergies and autoimmune dysregulation in infants born during the lockdown, approximately 77 per cent of infants had expressed one specific and meaningful phrase as opposed to 89 per cent of the infants in 2011. In comparison to other groups, only 93 per cent of the CORAL group could point. And about 88 per cent of the participants could wave goodbye, as against the 2011 group's 95 per cent, the Livemint report said.

This lack of necessary communication skills may not be of such big concern for parents. Experts suggest that with the pandemic restrictions eased there are many options for parents to travel with their children now and provide them with the chance to experience the world since newborns are incredibly resilient.