Pandemic Causes Developmental Delays for 5-Yr-Olds

From Jiji

July 11 2023

TOKYO – The development of 5-year-old children was delayed by 4.39 months on average due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a Japanese research group has found.

The group of researchers mainly from Kyoto University and the University of Tsukuba examined the developmental status of 5-year-old nursery kids in a municipality in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

While stating that it is unknown whether any similar delay happened in other municipalities, the group said that the developmental delay may have been caused by a reduction in interactions with others due chiefly to nursery closures during the COVID-19 crisis.

The study results were published Tuesday in the electronic edition of JAMA Pediatrics, a medical journal of the American Medical Association.

The study is based on assessments by nursery school teachers on the developmental status of 447 1-year-old children and 440 3-year-old children at all nursery schools meeting state requirements in the surveyed municipality between 2017 and 2019. The group conducted a follow-up study of the same children two years later.