Children in lockdown

Saltnshake
No disagreement from me. It was a tragedy for thousands of children.
I thought my Young friend was going to have a breakdown with her autistic son. The reason being he adored his teacher but of course he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see her.
I often went to see her to give support. I continued to see my own family.
I had 2 elderly neighbours who always had Sunday dinner with us. I wasn’t going to abandon them.
My attitude was: if professor Neil Ferguson ( him who predicted that 500,000 would die if we didn’t isolate) then goes on to invite his married girlfriend for some afternoon rumpy pumpy I gave the government the finger ✌️

My preschooler DGD was definitely affected. The isolation meant she met no-one outside the little family and her speech was delayed.
They live in a rural area with no neighbours.

my grandson who is about to turn 6 really struggles socially compared to his 9 yr old sister who had the benefit of mum and baby classes, toddler groups, play dates, he had none of that and it really upsets me that he does not know how to join in with mates. My granddaughter had all that and during lock down had classes on the internet from school via video calls and homework, it has not bothered her at all, but she learnt her early social skills when under 5 going to groups.

Having taught in a deprived area for many years I was very much against the closing of schools. For some children the safest place is in school. I thought some children would suffer violence or abuse and many would suffer neglect. Some people told me I was an idiot. I think I have been proven correct in my thinking.
My grandchildren did not suffer despite having two working parents. My daughter in law got up very early to do her work. My son looked after and taught the children until lunchtime. After lunch together my son worked until the early evening while my daughter in law looked after the boys; they played, built models, went to the park or walked. Both children did all the work set by the school and went back to school as fluent readers. They also spent time on screen talking to friends and family.
Many of their class mates had regressed in all areas including speaking. Some did none of the work set, perhaps because a computer was required for much of the work. Not every child had access to a computer. Some children have parents who barely talk to them, read to them or play with them.
I know most of you won't agree with me but I feel that priority workers, nurses, doctors, ambulance crew, police, delivery people should have been first to have jabs, then children and lastly the elderly. We are the ones that should have isolated instead.

Exactly, Marydoll. Children born during lockdown missed out on a great deal of socialisation - like you say, no playgroups, nurseries, mums and toddler groups or anything like that. The effects of that are definitely being seen now.

I can’t see why pre-schoolers were affected.

I do not agree Tiggy.

As a member of the school management, I used to be in the Primary One classes at the beginning of the new academic year, supporting both staff and pupils.
It was usually obvious which
children had not attended pre-school.

Pre-schoolers during Covid missed out on socialising at playgroups and nurseries.
Nursery education nowadays is very different from the nurseries of old days the past.
They are structured and like primary schools have educational plans to follow and targets to achieve.

I managed the Nuture Room in an area of high deprivation and some of the pupils had never attended nursery, consequently finding it difficult to cope with a mainstream classroom.

My DGS has Down Syndrome, he was 6 or 7 at the time of Lockdown, he understood what was said to him, but was unable to speak, he loved school and kept presenting my daughter with his schoolbag, expecting her to take him to school, he could not understand why he was not going to school, but when he was finally able to join his class at school he thrived, and was very proud when he brought the Gold Star home. This year he will start at a 'Special' secondary school, we are all hoping he will adapt to it as easily as he did to primary school

My grandchildren are 8 yrs and 5 yrs old now. The 8 yr old is above average in his class bright and friendly but can be a little shy in new environments. The 5 yr old was just a baby and luckily her mother was on maternity leave she is bright friendly and full of confidence. They attended nursery school 4 days a week as soon as lockdown was over and we had them one day plus sickness and holidays. Luckily no great problems

I can see that school-age children lost out socially and academically during the lockdowns, but I can’t see why pre-schoolers were affected. They should have had more time than usual with their parents! I never set foot in any pre-school setting before I started school, but I don’t think I was disadvantaged. There were only workplace nurseries available in the 50s, and I wasn’t eligible. I also had no siblings until later, but I can’t remember having difficulties settling into school. I looked forward to it and performed well at both primary and secondary levels. Neither of my parents was academically minded, BUT…I had a happy, secure childhood.

jocork

My DGC had whizzed through the set work in two or three hours so that left quite a long day to fill. Although their parents were working from home, they were very busy. Other Granny was in their 'bubble' so she helped with the younger one's lessons.

My grandson was born during 2020 and shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Germany for just under 2 years as my son was working at a German university. The family experienced German lockdown which made it difficult to make friends and they were also dealing with the language barrier as neither DS or DiL were fluent in German. They returned to the UK when GS was 21 months and he was very dependant on mummy. However he attended nursery soon after arriving in the UK and has become very balanced socially. His mum is training as a vicar so he meets a wide variety of people at church, and as the curate's son everyone knows him and he mixes well. His younger sister who is nearly 2 now is much less 'mummy focussed' so I see the difference, but I don't think he has been badly held back as he is developing well socially.
I think the children who have been most affected are those who were isolated after starting school as they missed their friends, and how much home schooling they had depended very much on their parents circumstances.
At the time of lockdown I worked as a Learning Support Assistant in a secondary school. Special needs children received doorstep visits from members of our team, but most children had only emailed work set. By the second lockdown schools had improved their online offerings to include actual lessons delivered on 'Teams' with support workers attending online, but I had retired by then so don't know how well that worked. I was relieved not to have to negotiate that as my technical skills leave a lot to be desired! Sadly the more deprived the family, the more they were affected, as their parents were often unable to give them the support they needed, especially where they were having to work from home themselves and may not have had enough electronic devices for everyone to use. Although schools were open for children of essential workers, only about a dozen of our pupils were attending from a very large secondary school! Many more children were eligible for that so I don't know why more did not use the facility. It was staffed by a couple of teachers and a few Learning Support Assistants on a rota but I only did one session, as initially the school classified me as vulnerable! When they did eventually agree to let me go in, the summer holidays were about to start! We spent most of our time trying to enforce mask wearing and social distancing and not much time helping with the work!

Who knows what the effects would have been if people kept suggesting it was a catastrophe.

Who do you mean by people?

If you mean families, then you are probably wrong. The message coming over the media, from the government, from medical officers, as another poster has said, was that you could kill your granny.
This was bound to worry kind, sensitive children.

Families were kept apart, how some families managed to meet is quite surprising, people going to the gym too as they were closed as far as I knew.

Perhaps restrictions were more stringent in some places than others.

As for The perpetrators are responsible for child abuse

Yes, we know that, but there were no checks, no teachers being able to notice signs of abuse. These crimes were more easily hidden during lockdowns.

Parents are responsible for getting their children to school.
You mean actually taking their children into school?
How many teenagers are left to get themselves off to school after parents have gone to work? Or start out but then bunk off?

Of course we all know that the grandchildren of Gransnetters are nothing less than perfect. Nor am I not talking about my own DGC but generally.

Whilst I think some children have suffered because of the lockdowns, I can't help thinking that it has highlighted a lack of resilience in a lot of children and that is what we should be concentrating on in the future. I have 9 grandchildren and they have not suffered significantly more. Even the younger ones seem to have the same levels of speech, etc they would have had if they'd gone to nursery.
My own experience of anxiety (which seems to be the biggest problem from Covid) is that the more you give into it, the more it takes over your life. We should be looking at Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, and mindfulness-based approaches in schools to get affected kids through this and hopefully this would help find those that are really damaged rather than those who just need a little more help.
As for being behind with schoolwork, children will catch up eventually. Things that they might have found really difficult at a young age will become easier to understand as they get older. It happens to most of us. I know it has happened to me!

My eldest granddaughter turned 5 during lockdown and my son has shared custody with her mum, so spent part of the week with my son during at our house. My son, husband and I made sure she did the school work that was emailed out weekly. When she finally returned to school she was well prepared, but it’s still obvious that some children didn’t complete the schoolwork so are lagging behind

Dreadful decision in lock downs for healthy people. My grandchildren are fine. Not he point! They missed so much joy as did their parents in this unnatural and unhealthy enforced decision.

Personally the 3different schools my gc attend went above and beyond expectations. We all lived through Covid just like folk lived through ww1 and ww2 - i think far too much is made of how did it make us “feel”. It happened.

My grandchildren have been fine, they had online learning, the best thing was offered in the worst situation.. My grandchildren born through lock down too have blossomed well and fortunately it hasn't been an issue for any of them

GS was 9, GD was 8 (different families) and both are fine. GS has ADHD and whole family thought he wouldn't cope being so restricted but he flourished. GD no issues either. (They live in different countries from each other. )

sazz1

My DD is a primary teacher and prepared lessons online for her class. Sadly many of the children didn't bother submitting homework and fell behind.
The one thing I will never forget is my DGC visiting and being afraid to enter the house. She stood in the doorway after being told to stay in the garden. I invited her in and with a look of pure terror on her face she said
"I can't come in granny. If I come inside I could kill you and you will die"
At 6 yrs old all her innocence was gone. She wasn't the happy, carefree child anymore.
Awful what we did to our children.

With primary school who let the children not bother? Don't parents have some responsibility there?

Allira

^I'm not sure if this is being exaggerated^
The Covid Enquiry should establish that.

CAHMS referrals went up up by 53%
Non-authorised school absences increased.
Incidences in child abuse were reported.

It cannot be coincidental.

I'm not saying no child had issues but from the small example on here it is clear many children were fine, some actually seemed to flourish.

The perpetrators are responsible for child abuse. Parents are responsible for getting their children to school.

My worry is that if we keep telling a generation that to their childhood/education/mental health have been ruined it will become a self fulfilling prophecy. No one suggested my son that missing months of school while undergoing painful surgery was anything other than a blip. Who knows what the effects would have been if people kept suggesting it was a catastrophe.

My DD is a primary teacher and prepared lessons online for her class. Sadly many of the children didn't bother submitting homework and fell behind.
The one thing I will never forget is my DGC visiting and being afraid to enter the house. She stood in the doorway after being told to stay in the garden. I invited her in and with a look of pure terror on her face she said
"I can't come in granny. If I come inside I could kill you and you will die"
At 6 yrs old all her innocence was gone. She wasn't the happy, carefree child anymore.
Awful what we did to our children.

I'm not sure if this is being exaggerated
The Covid Enquiry should establish that.

CAHMS referrals went up up by 53%
Non-authorised school absences increased.
Incidences in child abuse were reported.

It cannot be coincidental.

How long were schools actually closed for? I remember schools closing in March, then it was Easter holidays,in May there was half term in May. Some year groups back in June. Schools opened in September. I know they closed again in January but were they open from September to December? They opened again in March 2021.

I know some areas were hit harder but jn all honesty one of mine missed more school than that due to surgery and he couldn't keep up with school work as his surgery was on his eyes. He was just expected to fit back in and catch up.

I've read things like schools closed in March 2020 and didn't reopen for six months. Well some years they opened sooner than that and they weren't closed for six months due to lockdown as that time included Easter, half term and summer holidays so almost half of that six months they wouldn't have been in school anyway.

I'm not sure if this is being exaggerated.

My eight are all doing well.
I really felt for my daughter though who had a 10 month old and could have done with the company of other mums.
I think it impacted her most.

We were lucky in that my GS was able to continue attending nursery right through lockdown. I think I'd have gone mad if I'd had to be stuck at home with him all day every day.