At the Early Intervention Foundation we recently published an evidence review of the impact of pandemic life on physical development in the early years, which found that the pandemic has had a significant impact on key factors known to impact on physical development in children aged 0–5. The evidence showed:
- decreases in physical activity and increases in sedentary behaviour such as screen time
- substantial increases in food insecurity along with increases in unhealthy choices in everyday meals and snacking, with reported rises in obesity
- challenges to being supported to breastfeed, particularly for women with other disadvantages
- decreases in oral healthcare use and reduced vaccination rates, along with decreases in sleep quality.
We’ve all had to change how we live our lives – but for the youngest children, some of whom were born during the pandemic, or have lived the majority of their young lives under some form of social restrictions, the changes in their living situation have been so fundamental that they pose a meaningful risk to their ability to grow up healthy and to reach their full potential.
The review suggests a greater impact on children already vulnerable to poor physical health outcomes, namely children from low-income families, and those from UK minority ethnic families.
However, the review also found relatively little evidence that specifically examined the consequences of the pandemic on these factors for children aged 0–5 years in the UK, with much of it focused on older children, or conducted outside of the UK, where responses to Covid-19 will have been different.
This lack of knowledge will have an impact on the early years sector because nurseries and early years settings will need to be part of helping get children back on track.
This is why it’s important that more priorisation is given to generating UK-specific evidence. We need to urgently understand the full and ongoing impact of the pandemic-induced changes that are affecting the early physical development of children in the UK. This includes young children’s physical health and growth.
We know that when children fall behind in their physical development it is hard for them to catch up and it can impact other aspects of their cognitive and behavioural development. It means they are less likely to do well at school, which then has knock-ons to their future lives, earnings and careers.
At the Early Intervention Foundation, we think future research should examine key factors such as physical development, oral health and diet together and take account of the many wider risk and protective factors that impact on early child development, ranging from financial insecurity and parental mental health to early childhood services and stable family relationships.
Along with more research, we also need to concentrate on mitigating the impacts in ways that we know work. It is encouraging to see the announcement of funding for additional support for families with young children, particularly for support for breastfeeding and maternal mental health.
But we also need to understand what works to support other key factors highlighted in our review, such as physical activity, diet and nutrition, food security, oral health, vaccinations and sleep.
A key way to do this is through the trialling and then scale-up of evidence-based interventions as with the Government’s rollout of the Nuffield Early Language Intervention. Evidence-based interventions to support physical development in the early years could have a substantial impact, particularly if they are targeted at children most at risk of poor outcomes.
Without effective and rapid action to address the impacts on our youngest citizens, life will also of course be more challenging for those working on the frontline in the early years sector; many of whom no doubt have noticed many of these changes, and will continue to do so.
