Five-year-old Eli began kindergarten at California Creative Academy after spending early life during the COVID-19 pandemic. Parents experienced significant anxiety about transitions from small preschools to larger elementary environments and about loss of routines such as naps. Many children born in 2020 experienced limited social exposure and masked environments during infancy, with some spending their first year mainly in lockdowns or small family bubbles. More than 3.6 million children born in 2020 are entering elementary school this fall. A 2023 JAMA Pediatrics study found that early childhood experiences can have lasting effects: nurturing care enhances cognitive skills and academic achievement, while early disadvantages can create persistent skill deficits.
milestone, she said. Among her fears was that Eli, an only child, might feel overwhelmed by the transition from a small pre-school to a new elementary school with kids up to the 8th grade. She worried that he might cry, that he might have a meltdown, or that he wouldn't handle the structure of a kindergarten day with no naps.
Eli is one of more than 3.6 million children born in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic who are walking into elementary schools across the country this fall. They're children who came into a world full of masked adults dousing themselves in hand sanitizer. Many spent the first year of their lives either in isolation in lockdowns or with only a handful of trusted people in their bubbles. And the long-term impact on these "Covid kindergarteners" remains unclear.
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