The many personal accounts on this thread are heartbreaking to read. Children’s social and developmental needs really were all but forgotten during the pandemic.
DD has recently started Reception. When we visited her school last week for a casual drop-in visit her class teacher described her as ‘extraordinary’, and the most well-adjusted, school ready child she has taught in the past two years. In my personal opinion, DD, while lovely and certainly above average ability wise, is by no means extraordinary. In a ‘normal’ school year there would be a big group of similarly mature, able, well prepared children - but by the admission of the school, this year and last these children are largely missing.
So many of DD’s peers have significant issues: undiagnosed special needs, having missed out on professional scrutiny and early intervention during lockdown; social anxiety and other emotional issues; speech delay; general immaturity (my daughter comes across as a good couple of years older than most of her peers).
As a former primary teacher, I recognised immediately that there were an unusual amount of challenges among this year’s cohort. I’m also a governor at the school, and this was confirmed at our most recent meeting - this year and last, the Early Years teachers are mainly fire-fighting and trying to unravel some of the damage that has been done by lockdowns, widespread professional abandonment of children and the lack of crucial early social connections. Now compounded my the lack of funding to support them, and an almost total lack of recognition by government that these problems even exist.
Why is DD so far ahead? Not because she’s innately superior in any way, but because of my professional background (I also have a Master’s in a subject allied to child development). I recognised exactly what the impact of covid measures on young people would be and was able to mitigate some of the damage. I’m currently a SAHM, so was able to bake with her, craft with her and provide her with the stimulation she needed. As a family we pushed the ‘guidelines’ to the absolute limit - I still took DD to shops and on public transport, ignoring the glares and muttered comments about ‘superspreaders’ that I got from many members of the public. We met up outside (and, by the final lockdown, inside) with a couple of like-minded families so DD could have social contact. We saw both sets of grandparents after the first month or so of lockdown. We were fairly relaxed about the virus from the outset, especially once the minimal threat to young children became clear, and have thankfully avoided passing on any hang-ups about germs and cleanliness (I’m aware of at least two of DD’s friends who are now terrified of medical procedures due to frequent traumatic PCR tests, or now have issues around frequent compulsive hand-washing).
The ‘resilience’ line, trotted out so frequently during lockdown, was a total lie, used to assuage the guilt of those clamouring for ever tighter restrictions on children’s lives, and we are now dealing with the fallout. I am only grateful that the U.K. avoided a few of the worst excesses (masks on toddlers, as per the U.S. and others) and that DD appears to have escaped largely unscathed.