Study: Pandemic-Era Babies Have Social Communication 'Deficits'

A recent study from Ireland found that babies born during the COVID-19 pandemic had “deficits” in social communication, including speech. Who would have thought that locking developing infants in their homes and preventing them from any outside-the-home interaction would end up hindering their development?

The study abstract said, “The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic was managed with sustained mass lockdowns to prevent spread of COVID-19 infection. Babies born during the early stages of the pandemic missed the opportunity of meeting a normal social circle of people outside the family home.” The study then noted, “Compared with a historical cohort, babies born into lockdown appeared to have some deficits in social communication.”

Ireland had severely restrictive COVID-19 lockdowns, The Post Millennial noted. The lockdown measures included masking, of course. Psychology Today wrote in 2020, “An important source of information for babies from the very first days of life is human faces.” Babies are born with a preference for “face-like shapes” and prefer to look at faces rather than to look at most other things, Psychology Today wrote.