No matter how hard we try, we cannot deny or ignore the lasting impacts that COVID-19 has had on the world. I’m sure we all have grown tired of talking about it, but it still seems to linger in society, both literally and figuratively. All aspects of life and normalcy have been disrupted and brought to a halt, leaving us with despair and uncertainty. Many of us have been impacted by its unbiased destruction; however, the pandemic continues to affect certain aspects of life, such as childhood development.
In class this week, we had a notable speaker, Martha Ann Bell, discuss her ever-growing work on the role of frontal lobe maturation in early childhood, particularly how it relates to inhibitory control (IC) and academic achievement later in childhood. In her research, it was discovered that frontal lobe maturation in early childhood is key for the emergence of cognitive skills such as inhibitory control, which are crucial for academic success. Inhibitory control is the ability to suppress impulsive or automatic responses in favor of more appropriate, goal-directed actions. It is not enough for the brain to develop properly in order for a child to perform well academically, inhibitory control acts as a link that binds the two together.
Now, the question that formed in my mind after reading her article was: 'What about atypically developing children or certain environmental, genetic, and economic factors affecting the development of children?' An example of this is the developmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children. I read an article on this topic titled 'Developmental Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Young Children: A Conceptual Model for Research with Integrated Administrative Data Systems' (Rouse et al., 2021). The article explored the significant effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on children aged 0-5, a vulnerable population that was considered understudied during the pandemic. The authors argued that during this age range, children are in a critical developmental period as their brains are rapidly forming, and their experiences during this time will influence long-term cognitive, emotional, and social outcomes. They mentioned that while children were affected by direct pandemic-related stressors, such as family illness and school closures, they were also impacted by "indirect stressors," such as parental job loss, economic instability, and caregiver mental health problems. All of these factors can disrupt early learning environments and social-emotional development, potentially creating long-term developmental delays.
Both Martha Ann Bell's work and the article by Rouse et al. (2021) highlight the crucial role of early brain development in childhood, especially how factors like inhibitory control are linked to academic success. However, the pandemic is one of the environmental factors that can disrupt a child's development. When faced with new challenges such as school closures, economic instability, and caregiver mental health struggles, children may struggle to perform adequately during this critical developmental time. Such disruptions can hinder the development of key cognitive skills like inhibitory control, which could have long-term effects on their academic and social success.
References
Whedon, M., Perry, N. B., & Bell, M. A. (2020). Relations between frontal EEG maturation and inhibitory control in preschool in the prediction of children’s early academic skills. Brain and Cognition, 146, 105636. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105636
Rouse, H. L., Fantuzzo, J. W., LeBoeuf, W. A., Pinder, M., & Coe, K. (2021). Developmental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on young children: A conceptual model for research with integrated administrative data systems. International Journal of Population Data Science, 6(1), 1403. https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v6i1.1403
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