‘Huge impact’ on Aussie kids finally revealed

Children’s brain patterns solidify in the first few years of their lives, and if your child went through this developmental phase during lockdowns, they may still be impacted today.

Pandemic lockdowns hit on this day five years ago, and an entire generation is still reckoning with the effects, struggling to adapt as society returns to normalcy.

RMIT Lecturer in Early Childhood Elise Waghorn has seen first hand how children who experienced their peak developmental stage during lockdowns are now struggling to adapt to the school system.

“Even though Covid was five years ago, I still think that we’re seeing some of the impact on especially the children that were in their prime stage of development in those years, that we’re still seeing the ongoing impact, but it’s changed their brain patterns,” Ms Waghorn told news.com.au.

“It’s not necessarily something that we can all of a sudden fix and change back because the brain’s adaptive, it adapts to the environment that it’s in and it’s effectively adapted to being locked down for two years.

“It’s not something you can just flick a switch and undo.”

Experts say children who were in the prime stage of development during the pandemic lockdowns may still be struggling to adapt to face-to-face interactions that are necessary for their education and future.

Most of these children face crucial issues as these brain patterns limit their ability to function effectively in social settings, such as schools and playgrounds.

“Children’s social and language skills have obviously decreased a lot, purely due to the lack of engagement with their parents or with extended family members or friends because they were so isolated at home.

“So that had a huge impact on children’s ability to communicate with each other,” Ms Waghorn said.

Children who are now entering prep school, kindergarten or year one are especially vulnerable as they often suffer from attachment issues.

“Your prime time for getting to know strangers is around 10 months, and obviously they were in lockdown at the time,” Ms Waghorn said.

“They weren’t getting that exposure to different people … and that’s flowed through because we know that early relationships impact future relationship building, so … children are probably a little bit more introverted.

“They shy away from being able to put themselves out there in a social context.”

It comes as a new docu-series Lockdown Kids: How to Break a Generation by the Adelaide Advertiser explores how Aussie kids are faring five years after Covid.

“We know people weren’t able to go about their day to day lives … it really disrupted that period for people and that can have lasting impacts and that doesn’t necessarily go away on the day lockdown finishes,” online youth mental health service ReachOut’s clinical governance lead Linda Williams said.

Research by ReachOut found 40 per cent of young people have “significant mental health concerns”, while almost 500,000 Aussie kids failed to return to the classroom full time.

Although parents and teachers may hope children will eventually grow out of their social anxiety, it may be more difficult than previously thought for this particular group of youth.

“The hope is that as they grow up, they continue to be able to develop this school, but it’s definitely going to have an impact short-term,” Ms Waghorn said.

“We know that before the age of seven, your brain path has already kind of set itself out … your personality is already very much determined so if children haven’t established these types of situations or been able to develop these skills before age seven, it’s actually going to be embedded.

“It’s very hard to change your personality if you haven’t become used to it from an early age.”

Children who were not properly socialised at 10 months may suffer from attachment issues with their parents as they struggle to form relationships with strangers. Children who experienced the lockdown before turning seven, which is when their brain path establishes itself, are also particularly vulnerable. Picture: Getty Images

Because of this, children are struggling to communicate effectively, and build relationships with those around them, despite returning to face-to-face environments.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in some of their social cues, eye contact when speaking to people and things like that, because they’re so used to being behind the screen, it changes the way they interact with people face-to-face,” Ms Waghorn said.

Although pushing children out of their comfort zone may trigger some anxiety, challenging their abilities by encouraging them to try new things is one of the core ways to support them, according to Ms Waghorn.

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This is essential, as these children’s future opportunities may suffer as they struggle to connect with those sitting across from them.

“Even when having a job and things like that … being able to undertake an interview going forward, or just being able to communicate with people and reading social cues is a big one,” Ms Waghorn said.

“If we aren’t reading social cues appropriately, if we’re not adapting our own selves based on what’s presented, we’re going to be reading the situation wrong.”

This push is not just up to parents, the education system and teachers must also form part of the coalition to get these kids back on track.

“We definitely need to have programs in school that encourage social connection, have a less focus on individual work and more group work,” Ms Waghorn said.

“That collaborative approach I think is really important.”

Impacted children are struggling to read and express social cues which will impact their future opportunities unless schools, parents, and the education department step up and provide the necessary support. Picture: Shae Beplate.

However, compassion, empathy and patience are also needed to provide children with the support they need as they navigate a foreign world.

“ I think we also need to be kind to understand children, that some children are just not going to naturally connect with people if they’re so used to being in that isolated environment,” Ms Waghorn said.

“We can’t be looking at children and the age that they are at the moment if they’ve been through Covid, that we’ve got to sometimes just go back to basics and break it back down and support them of where they’re at as opposed to support them where we feel that they should be at … just because of their age.”

RMIT Lecturer in Early Childhood Elise Waghorn said that schools need to go “back to basics” and meet pandemic kids at their needs, instead of “where we feel that they should be at … just because of their age”. Picture Scott Powick

“It is clear that five years on from the first lockdown too many Australian children are yet to recover from the effects of isolation and home schooling. It is vital we have a conversation about the welfare of Australian children and also weigh up whether shutting schools and locking kids up was the right policy response,” Advertiser Editor Gemma Jones said.