What Really Happened to Our Youngest Students During COVID?
The headlines about the pandemic's effects on children have been alarming and often bleak. But what if the real story is more complicated—and, in some ways, less dire—than we've been led to believe?
A massive new study of nearly half a million kindergarteners across 19 states, conducted by a team of experienced researchers, has uncovered surprising findings about how the pandemic affected our youngest students. The results challenge some of our most significant assumptions about the 'COVID generation' and reveal concerning trends that were already in motion long before anyone had heard of social distancing.
The Unexpected Findings That Challenge What We Thought We Knew
The UCLA-led research team, whose findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics, tracked kindergarteners' development across five key areas from 2010 to 2023. When comparing pre-pandemic kids (2018-2020) to those who attended kindergarten during the pandemic (2021-2023), here's what they discovered:
The Good News: Physical health and well-being scores stayed steady – no pandemic decline detected
The Better News: Emotional maturity increased during the pandemic
The Mixed News: While language, cognitive, and social skills did decline, the drops were less than some feared
Dr. Judith Perrigo, the study's lead author, found that many negative trends observed in kindergarteners' developmental health during the COVID-19 pandemic were small and existed before its onset.
The "COVID Kids" Grew Up Fast – But Is That a Good Thing?
Perhaps the most fascinating finding was that kindergarteners who attended school during the pandemic showed higher emotional maturity scores than their pre-pandemic peers.
Why would kids who lived through lockdowns, masking, and social restrictions be more emotionally mature?
The researchers suggest that increased exposure to adult stressors – from overhearing news about death counts to witnessing parental financial strain and anxiety – may have forced young children to develop coping skills beyond their years.
Increased maturity may have been required for young children to cope with pandemic-related stressors, similar to maturation observed in children facing significant challenges, such as family separation or poverty.
But this forced maturity comes with a concerning twist: The most recent data shows that these emotional maturity gains are already reversing—and more rapidly than in other developmental areas.
The Bigger Problem Nobody's Talking About
While most media attention has focused on pandemic effects, the researchers uncovered something even more troubling: kindergarteners' developmental scores were already declining significantly before the pandemic hit.
From 2018 to 2020 (pre-pandemic), researchers observed concerning drops across all developmental domains compared to earlier years. This suggests broader societal issues affecting child development that predated COVID-19, such as excessive screen time due to increased use of digital devices, economic instability leading to stress in families, and climate change anxiety affecting mental health.
These negative trends occurred at the same or slower rate during the post-pandemic onset period (2021-2023), suggesting the pandemic may have slowed some negative trends rather than caused them.
What Was Most Affected – And What Parents Should Watch For
While the study found relatively small effects overall, certain developmental areas were hit harder than others:
Language and Cognitive Development: This area saw the largest decline, reflecting reduced play, in-person interactions, and early learning opportunities due to early childhood center closures.
Communication and General Knowledge: Skills like verbal expression and general understanding of the world around them also showed notable declines.
Social Competence: The ability to interact effectively with peers and adults showed small but significant decreases.
For parents of young children who experienced the pandemic during their preschool years, these findings suggest paying special attention to language, cognitive, and social skill development while recognizing that the pandemic's effects were less catastrophic than often portrayed in media headlines.
Why This Matters for Every Parent, Teacher, and Citizen
This research isn't just academic – it has profound implications for how we support children moving forward.
The pandemic shined a spotlight on existing problems in early childhood development in America that urgently need addressing:
Growing wealth inequality affecting families with young children
Challenges in strengthening the early childhood education workforce
Persistent disparities in access to quality care and education
Moreover, the lessons learned from the pandemic apply beyond COVID-19 to any crisis that disrupts children's regular schooling – from natural disasters to mass shooting events. These lessons include the need for robust support systems for families, the importance of early childhood education, and the necessity of addressing disparities in access to quality care and education.
What Helped Buffer the Impact?
One surprising finding offers hope: The negative trends in child development actually slowed during the pandemic. Researchers suggest this may be due to pandemic-related federal support measures that helped families weather the crisis:
Stimulus checks
Enhanced child tax credits
The Tenant Relief Act
Expanded unemployment benefits
Together, these measures reduced child poverty by an astonishing 76% in 2021.
As these supports are phased out, researchers are watching carefully to see if negative trends accelerate again – a warning sign for policymakers about the importance of family economic support in child development.
What Now? 5 Ways to Support Your Child's Development
If you're raising or teaching young children who experienced the pandemic during their formative years, experts suggest:
Prioritize language-rich environments: Read often, engage in conversation, limit passive screen time
Create social opportunities: Arrange playdates, join community activities, encourage cooperative play
Communicate with teachers: Partner with educators to identify and address specific developmental needs
Recognize emotional growth: Acknowledge the maturity your child may have developed during the pandemic
Don't panic: Remember that many pandemic effects were less than feared, and children are remarkably resilient
The Bottom Line
The "COVID generation" isn't doomed, but it does need thoughtful support. By understanding the pandemic's real impacts—both positive and negative—parents, educators, and policymakers can make informed decisions to help ensure our youngest learners thrive despite the extraordinary circumstances of their early years.
The research findings underscore the urgent need for early childhood policies that address these preexisting challenges and the additional stressors introduced by the pandemic. Policymakers should take note and act swiftly to support our youngest learners.
This article is based on research published in JAMA Pediatrics on March 10, 2025, examining data from 475,740 kindergarten students across 19 states collected between 2010 and 2023.
