Scotland must work to save Covid kids from becoming 'lost generation'
While the Covid lockdowns played a ‘vital role in curbing the spread of infections’, they also seem to have been ‘associated with increased early childhood development concerns’, says researcher
When the Covid pandemic first hit and the country went into lockdown, the concern was, quite rightly, to save lives, particularly of those most susceptible to the virus, such as elderly people.
Looking back on that time, it seems that too little thought was given to the effects of lockdown on children. This was perhaps understandable as they were substantially less likely to become seriously ill.
However, it gradually became clear that the loss of socialisation as a result of the closure of schools and other restrictions was having a far more serious effect on young people than was at first realised.
Massive international study
Now a major study of almost 258,000 young children in Scotland – the biggest of its kind anywhere in Europe – has found high levels of developmental delays in toddlers, affecting speech and language skills, physical movement and emotional growth.
The researchers, from Edinburgh, Dundee and Sheffield universities, Public Health Scotland and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Italy, looked at more than 80 per cent of all children in Scotland who were aged 13 to 15 months and 27 to 30 months between January 2019 and August 2023.
Researcher Dr Iain Hardie said that while public health measures designed to tackle Covid had played a “vital role in curbing the spread of infections... they also appear to have been associated with increased early childhood development concerns”.
Commenting on the findings, reported in The Lancet medical journal, the Scottish Conservatives’ children and young people spokeswoman Roz McCall said: “It is essential that we recognise the detrimental impact on developing young minds and urgently take steps to rectify the situation or we will have produced a lost generation.”
Clearly, if there are ways to help the affected children as they grow up, that should be a priority. The authorities did not know about the full extent of lockdown’s effects on children at the time, but it's fairly obvious now. Harm was done and must be remedied to the best of our abilities.
Furthermore, this should inform planning for the next pandemic and the grim calculus used to establish whether a lockdown is truly necessary.
Want the latest Scottish headlines sent directly to your phone? Sign up to our new WhatsApp Channel here.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.