COVID rules are blamed for 23% dive in young children’s development: Disturbing study shows scores in three key cognitive tests slumped between 2018 and 2021, with face mask rules among possible culprits

  • Face masks and other social distancing measures may in fact impede on children’s development, a new study executed by Brown University has found
  • The probe analyzed the cognitive development of the youngsters through infancy, childhood and adolescence
  • In the study, researchers first analyzed 1,070 assessments administered on 605 kids prior to March 2020, when COVID lockdowns and masking began
  • A further 154 assessments from 118 kids administered between March 2020 and June 2021, during the height of the pandemic, were then carried out 
  • Thirty-nine children born in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed over the course of the pandemic, into 2021.
  • The report found that there was a 23 per cent drop in scores measuring kids’ intelligence quotients since the start of the pandemic
  • The study also found similar dips in the same span in regards to developing children’s ability to communicate, both verbally and though subtle facial cues 

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