Lockdown affected communication skills of pandemic-born babies, study finds

'Severely restricted social circles are likely to have led to babies hearing fewer words and conversations with those outside the family home, and if they did it was likely to be between masked adults,' report said.

Lockdown restrictions affected the communication skills of some babies born during the early days of the covid pandemic, research has found, prompting a need for additional screening and supports.

The study is the first to highlight a mild communication deficit in babies born during the pandemic, according to co-author Professor Jonathan Hourihane. 

Conducted by researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Children’s Health Ireland and University College Cork, it found restricted social circles were likely to have led to babies hearing fewer words and conversations with those outside the family home.

“Our findings highlight the need to continue national developmental screening programmes for all children, and provide the appropriate resources for early intervention services,” Prof Hourihane said.

The study examined developmental milestones for two-year-old children who were born in the first months of covid-19 lockdowns and compared them with results for two-year-olds born before the start of the pandemic.

It asked parents to fill out standard questionnaires and checklists about their child’s development and milestones.

Parents of both sets of children reported similar results in areas such as movement, personal and social interactions and solving problems.

Communication development

However, there was what researchers termed a small but “statistically relevant” difference in answers around communication, with a larger proportion of pandemic-born babies scoring below standardised cut-off points in areas around communication development (11.9%) compared to babies born before the pandemic (5.4%).

Dr Susan Byrne, from the RCSI Department of Paediatrics, said: “The majority of pandemic-born babies had entirely normal communication scores, but in the overall group there was a statistically relevant higher proportion at risk of developmental concerns compared to the pre-pandemic group.“ 

This study built on the findings of a previous piece of research last year looking at how children born during the pandemic had fared at 12 months of age.

Dr Byrne said: “In the CORAL study, we had previously shown that pandemic-born babies in Ireland had slightly reduced social communication skills relative to their counterparts who had not experienced lockdown as babies.

“We can’t say exactly why that was but we did show that these babies had very small social circles. In the first year of life a, quarter of the pandemic-born babies in the CORAL group did not meet another child of their own age.” 

This new study again highlights the lack of interaction many children would have had outside the home due to the situation with covid-19 at the time.

It said: “Severely restricted social circles are likely to have led to babies hearing fewer words and conversations with those outside the family home, and if they did it was likely to be between masked adults.

“Often developmental concerns come about when other family members (eg, grandparents) express concern, or parents see developmental progress in their children’s peers, but these were largely unavailable to most parents whose babies were born early on in the pandemic."

The researchers concluded further work was needed to understand why there was a difference in the communication outcomes of this cohort of children.

This research should also look at “what this may mean for children when they reach school age”, the study added.