Lockdowns may have affected mental health of young pupils

 

Children at a kindergarten before the lockdowns.

PETALING JAYA: Psychologists suspect that the repeated lockdowns over the last year have affected cognitive development in children in primary schools, daycare centres and kindergartens.

They say symptoms such as social isolation may be apparent now as the children readjust to their learning environments.

A child mental health specialist from Oasis Place Centre, Ong Su Sen, said pre-school children, especially children in single-child households, might have been affected the most from the lack of opportunities to develop social and other crucial skills.

Ong said children in this age group required activity to help them regulate their energy levels.

Ong Su Sen.

“The limitation of outdoor and social activities would cause restlessness in them, resulting in behavioural problems.”

She also said children were becoming more anxious in general and she attributed this to various factors, including a lack of daily routine and stressful feelings about the health of their families.

Another psychologist, Nadiah Syariani Md Shariff of Management and Science University, agreed that social isolation during the pandemic might have affected children’s cognitive development.

She said children going to kindergarten were especially vulnerable to long-term changes in peer-to-peer interactions.

“This would cause children in general to be lacking in their abilities in social reasoning, which would affect their emotional and behavioural responses as well as overall well-being.”

Nadiah Syariani Md Shariff.

However, Nadiah Syariani said it was yet to be fully understood how social distancing could affect children in the short and long terms.

She said kindergarten and primary school teachers should help in monitoring behavioural changes in children under their care.

They should watch out for social withdrawal behaviours, such as isolating from social activity, shyness and temper tantrums, especially if these symptoms were to persist over time.

Counselling psychologist Dr Rafidah Aga Mohd Jaladin of Universiti Malaya said parenting styles and family dynamics would influence cognitive development.

Rafidah said there were concerns that many parents, particularly from poor communities, had opted for permissive parenting styles, resulting in the neglect of many children.

Dr Rafidah Aga Mohd Jaladin.

She said a lack of parental monitoring might have led to unhealthy psychosocial development among children younger than three, causing poor development of their autonomy skills.

“My current research interest involves the B40, especially those who live in PPR housing,” she said. “It is worrisome because they are struggling financially. Many B40 parents have lost their jobs because of the pandemic.

“When they are struggling, they become laissez-faire parents. They become really worried about getting food on the table. Children who actually need their care and attention are neglected.”

Preschools and primary schools reopened on March 1, after about a year of closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic. - FMT