The British newspaper “The Guardian” has published a new study which says that communication skills of the babies who were born during the Corona pandemic lag behind those of their peers.
The study was conducted by scientists based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) – which examined what life was like for babies born during the pandemic, and the implications for their health and development.
According to The Guardian, the study focused on babies born in the first three months of lockdown and compared them with a similar group of babies born before the pandemic.
A total of 354 families and their babies were involved in the study.
The researchers discovered that, at six months, an average of only three people had kissed babies, including their parents – indicating babies had met very few relatives or family friends.
One in four babies had not met another child their own age by their first birthday, it was also revealed.
The newspaper added that when parents were asked what it felt like to raise a child during lockdown they frequently used words such as “lonely” and “isolating”.
It explained that babies born during the Covid pandemic may have heard fewer words because they were locked in their houses, and this may have led to their slightly lower communication scores compared with those of children born before the the virus.
