School readiness losses during the COVID‐19 outbreak. A comparison of two cohorts of young children

• Published in: Child Development Vol. 93; no. 4; pp. 910 - 924
• Main Authors: González, Meliza, Loose, Tianna, Liz, Maite, Pérez, Mónica, Rodríguez‐Vinçon, Juan I., Tomás‐Llerena , Clementina, Vásquez‐Echeverría, Alejandro
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley 01.07.2022; John Wiley & Sons, Inc; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Academic readiness; Achievement Gains; Child; Child Development; Child, Preschool; Children; Cognitive ability; Cognitive Development; Cognitive-behavioral factors; COVID-19; Day care centers; Disease Outbreaks; Disruption; Educational Status; Empirical; Ethnicity; Female; Foreign Countries; Girls; Humans; Internalization; Male; Motor Development; Pandemics; Preschool Children; Preschools; Public Schools; School Readiness; Schools; Socioeconomic Status; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Uruguay
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13738

The COVID‐19 context has created the most severe disruption to education systems in recent history. Its impact on child development was estimated comparing two cohorts of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old Uruguayan children: control (n = 34,355, 48.87% girls) and COVID cohort (n = 30,158, 48.95% girls) assessed between 2018 and 2020 in three waves, by a routinely administered school readiness instrument in public preschools. Ethnicity information is not available. For the COVID cohort, losses were observed in Motor and Cognitive development, Attitudes towards learning, and Internalizing behavior (range 0.13 – 0.27 SD). Losses were less pronounced among children from higher socioeconomic schools. These results extend the literature on the consequences of the pandemic on learning and early child development.