How the Pandemic Has Shaped Babies’ Development
Two years is a long time in any child’s life. It’s half of high school and most of middle school, time enough for a grade schooler to notch several inches on the kitchen doorframe and for toddlers to leap from first words to conversations. For the babies born in March 2020, just as the pandemic was declared, two years make up their whole lives.
From the minute these children were born in empty maternity wards to now—as their parents are cautiously approaching their second-birthday celebrations, and the world is observing the pandemic’s anniversary—life has been unpredictable and unsettling. For adults, anyway. It’s less clear what the experience has been like for the kids, who have been limited in their interactions like everyone else—but who are engaged in a time of astonishing brain growth, when the foundations are laid for everything from language to friendship and resilience.
I talked with six families whose babies were born just as the pandemic descended. Some of those kids have yet to meet their grandparents, aunts, or uncles. Some have spent months on end playing only alone or with siblings. Parents have grieved missed milestones: A joyous baptism celebration turned into a few masked people spread out
