How Covid-19 has affected kids

Two and a half years into the pandemic, kids are trying to catch up on what they missed. Earlier this year, I started working on a story about how the pandemic has affected America’s youngest kids. A lot of my motivation was selfish — I have a 4-year-old, and I wanted to know what it meant for him psychologically and emotionally to spend his earliest formative years in what we could, at best, call extraordinary times. I definitely worry about how the pandemic has affected him, as a lot of parents do, but I’m also kind of jealous. [What would it be like, I often wonder, if you literally didn’t remember a time before Covid-19 hit?]( I needed a bigger sample size than just my kid, and I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Child Center of New York Corona Head Start program in Corona, Queens, where I watched a classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds on a fairly typical day in April. I cannot overstate how much fun this was — for a long time, the pandemic made visiting classrooms for reporting impossible (for many months, kids were unable to visit their own classrooms!), and being able to do it again felt like a mark of how far we’ve come, even though things still sometimes feel so stuck. Talking to their teacher and to child development experts was a bit more sobering — the kids’ teacher in particular is really worried about all the socialization her students missed out on and are still missing. But I came away with a lot of faith in the resiliency of young kids, and with a lot of hope that they can have a bright future — as long as adults actually address their needs. —[Anna North](, senior correspondent   The kids who have never known life without Covid-19 [photos of school children, some wearing masks]( Photographs by Bess Adler for Vox It’s 10 am, and the flower shop at Classroom 9 is open for business. Nataly, 5, is the cashier, presiding over a toy register and a vibrant array of cloth roses, carnations, and orchids. Arlet, also 5, mops the floor. Their teacher, Rawshan Khanam, is the first customer. For a modest bouquet, Nataly quotes her a price of $50. Aside from a bit of sticker shock (inflation has clearly hit the preschool flower market), it seems like the most ordinary interaction in the world: a couple of little kids and their teacher playing store. The students at the Child Center of New York Corona Head Start program in Corona, Queens, however, spent some of their most crucial formative years in a pandemic, when going to the store — or anywhere else — was no longer so simple. That history keeps coming up even now that they’re attending preschool at the Corona Head Start program, which serves low-income kids in a part of New York City hard-hit by Covid. Khanam is reminded of everything her students have missed out on when she asks them about once-common childhood experiences. “Have you ever been to a museum? No. Have you ever been to a beach? No. Have you ever been to a library? No,” she said. “It’s so much ‘no’ in their lives.” At this point, two and a half years into the pandemic, many kids have begun to catch up on experiences they missed. With vaccines becoming [available for children under 5]( in the near future, families can finally plan a return to normalcy. [At the same time, infants, toddlers, and preschoolers have gone through crucial years of early social and emotional development at a time of trauma and isolation for many Americans.]( Many spent some of their earliest months on lockdown, often interacting only with family and missing out on small but real learning experiences like playing in a sandbox or going to the grocery store. Many of their caregivers went through extreme stress as well, which can affect children even before they’re born. Psychologists, educators, and other experts are still learning what it means for little kids to be born into the biggest public health crisis in a generation. Some of the news is concerning: One study, for example, found that babies born during the pandemic were slightly behind their pre-pandemic counterparts on measures of motor and social development. Parents and teachers are also worried about young children’s language development after long periods of isolation and mask-wearing. “Their speech is so delayed,” Khanam said. The picture that’s emerging, though, is not as bleak as some might fear. [Read the full story »]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   It’s a terrifying time to have kids in America. It doesn’t have to be this way. How do you raise kids in a country that seems to hate them? 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