Socially-Distant Learning is Negatively Impacting Children’s Socio-Emotional Wellbeing

Socially-Distant Learning is Negatively Impacting Children’s Socio-Emotional Wellbeing

Locked behind screens or glued to seats in socially distanced classrooms, millions of children around the world have had their education disrupted over the past year. COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on the entire world, but the burden on childhood education is often overlooked. Parents and teachers are concerned about the consequences of distance learning on the students’ academic progress, but school provides much more than just academic education.

School fosters socio-emotional development in a variety of ways and is a safe outlet for children to socialize with their peers. As a result of precautions due to the pandemic, children are missing out on the educational environment they need for support and growth. I believe that the consequences of remote and socially-distance learning will be detrimental to the social and emotional well-being of students for years to come if the educational system continues to fail to remediate the deficits in this isolated system of learning.

1.5 billion children worldwide have missed school time due to the pandemic. K-12 education systems were ill-prepared to transition to online learning and many districts completely closed from March to June of the 2020 school year. It is well established that during periods of school closure, children lose reading abilities. A recent study from Bao et al. predicts that the rate of reading ability gain in kindergarteners will decline by 66% due to COVID-19 school closures. A year later, millions have returned to instruction, but many are still fully virtual. Thousands of children lack appropriate devices and internet access in their homes and many parents are reluctant to send their kids back to school if even possible under the current circumstances. Those who returned to the classroom are isolated by masks and plastic dividers, still deprived of the full experience of their education. Although long-term academic deficits due to the disruptions in pandemic related classroom instruction have not yet been documented, parents can attest to the fact that their kids are not making expected academic progress. Other parents express concern about the impact of educational isolation on their children, which I believe is more detrimental than the academic setbacks.

Studies demonstrate that social interaction is key to the mental and physical development of young children. In the classroom, students develop social and emotional skills as they learn to control their behavior and interact with their peers. Fontenelle-Tereshchuk asserts that one of the most important competencies students learn in school is to cope with adversity. In the classroom, children develop a sense of purpose and begin to form their identity. Online education and socially distanced, in-person precautions limit student-teacher interaction and prevent children from socializing with their peers to the fullest extent. Thus, children have fewer opportunities to develop social skills and maintain their emotional well-being in the ways that they normally are able to. The educational changes due to the pandemic have the potential to be detrimental to children’s future course of development, especially as the pandemic is lasting into another year with no definitive end in sight.

The concern for the socioemotional well-being of school-aged children is growing as researchers are already identifying unfavorable trends over the past months. Fontenelle-Tereshchuk found that parents are struggling to support their children in online learning and that students online and in-person modified classrooms miss the personal interaction with their teachers and peers that only an unmasked, close contact classroom can afford them. Yayci and Kendirci identified that two-thirds of elementary school students in their sample have experienced behavioral problems during the progress of the pandemic. These behavioral issues include increased irritability, aggression, rebellion, sleep problems, laziness, hyperactivity, overeating, and anxiety. The increased prevalence of behavioral problems suggests that pandemic related disruptions to school routines are having an appreciable impact on children.

The isolating aspects of pandemic-era education are deteriorating the mental health of many children. Even before the pandemic, childhood mental health problems were prevalent in kids, with 3.2% diagnosed with depression, 7.1% with anxiety, and 7.4% with a behavioral problem. COVID-19 is exacerbating existing mental health issues and promoting the emergence of new ones. Social distancing restrictions and school closures are depriving children of an educational environment that is important to the maintenance of their well-being. Even in normal times, children often do not receive mental health services they need, and disparities in access to mental health care have increased because of the pandemic. Schools also provide access to health care, mental health services, food, and social services that are unavailable to children elsewhere. Research also demonstrates that screen time and social media use, which have both increased during online education, increase the risk for developing mental health problems. Clearly, educational restrictions due to the pandemic are having an appreciable impact on children’s mental health. If nothing is done to address these concerning trends and return children to their pre-paramedic school environment, there will be long-lasting challenges for children around the world.

Many argue that the impact on academic learning is the aspect of the pandemic’s effect on the education system that is the most important problem to address, but I believe that children’s socioemotional health is a more pressing issue. After all, a child cannot do well academically without first being mentally well. Children are being negatively affected by the pandemic in a variety of ways which stem back to missing out on in-person instruction and the ability to socialize in the school environment. If these issues are not addressed, there will be lasting effects as children are not acquiring the skills they need during this vital developmental period. The socio-emotional impact of the pandemic on children will endure past the time when we can finally take off our masks if kids are not supported in the absence of a quality in-person learning environment.

References

Fontenelle-Tereshchuk, D. (2021). Mental Health and the COVID-19 Crisis: The Hopes and Concerns for Children as Schools Reopen. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, 52(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-020-09413-1

Henderson, M. (2020) The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Impact on Child Mental Health: A Socio-Ecological Perspective. Pediatric Nursing, 46(6).

Kennedy, M. (2020). Classes Dismissed: The Covid-19 virus pandemic has shut down virtually the entire U.S. education system and disrupted the lives of millions of students and staff. American School & University, 92(6), 14–17.

Xue Bao, Hang Qu, Ruixiong Zhang, & Tiffany P. Hogan. (2020). Modeling Reading Ability Gain in Kindergarten Children during COVID-19 School Closures. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(6371). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176371

Yaycı, L., & Kendirci, A. (2021). Determination of educational/academic and some social behavioral trends of elementary school students in turkey during coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic days. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching (IOJET), 8(1). 358-380.