Babies Born During COVID Pandemic May Have Delayed Communication Skills

Babies born into lockdowns because of COVID have taken longer to reach certain developmental milestones than babies who were born before the pandemic, a study has found.

Before the COVID pandemic, parents commonly observed their infants pointing at objects by nine months old. Many babies were already saying their first words by the age of one.

The new study, however, which was published by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, on Tuesday, October 11, revealed that Irish infants who were born from March to May 2020 had a harder time communicating at the age of one than those born between the years 2008 and 2011 had.

Study compared infants born between 2008 and 2011 and those born during the COVID pandemic

Around 89 percent of babies born between 2008 and 2011 could already articulate a full word like "cup" or "bowl" at 12 months old, compared to around 77 percent of infants born during the early months of the COVID pandemic.

The portion of babies who could point at objects dropped from 93 percent to 84 percent, and the share who could wave goodbye decreased from 94 percent to 88 percent.

The study results were based on a questionnaire given during the pandemic to parents of 309 babies in Ireland. The babies' parents were asked around the first birthday of each infant whether their child could perform ten different tasks, such as stacking bricks or standing up.

The researchers then compared the results they got during the pandemic to a longitudinal study that assessed the same ten skills of infants between 2008 and 2011. Both groups of parents were asked to answer the surveys as close to their kids' birthdays as possible.

Ireland had a strict lockdown between March 2020 and April 2021, requiring people to stay home except for essential activities. Irish residents were not allowed to dine inside restaurants, and people who could work at home were advised to do so. Those who did not follow the rules were threatened with fines.

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A quarter of babies in the study did not meet another kid their age before their first birthday

Dr. Susan Byrne, a pediatric neurologist at the Royal College of Surgeons and the study's author, said that a quarter of the babies in her study had never met another kid their age by their first birthday.

Byrne said that when the babies were six months old, their families only saw, on average, four other people outside the home. Each infant had only been kissed by three adults, including their parents.

Byrne said that it is no surprise, then, that the communications skills of babies were delayed. She added that if no one is coming to your house to leave again, you will not learn how to say "bye, bye." Byrne told NBC News some of the babies probably were not hearing or seeing as many people speak.

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