Influence on Cognitive Skill Development in 5 to 10 Years Old Children due to COVID-19 Lockdown

Introduction: Under the circumstances created during lockdown period, children were deprived from the social interaction and companionship; because of which, they were susceptible to hampered cognitive development. Therefore, in this study, efforts were made to understand the impact of lockdown on the cognitive development of 5-10 year old children in India. Material and methods: A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed to the parents via social media platforms. This questionnaire included 20 questions divided into categories such as attention, passivity, organizing, perception of space and directions, concept of time, perception of visual forms and figures, memory, comprehension of spoken language, verbal communication, reading-writing-arithmetic, and emotional problems. Responses were automatically recorded in the Google forms. Results: A total of 151 participants had successfully filled out the online survey. Findings from this study revealed that 45.9% children had impact on attention/concentration, 49% children had become Inactive, 42% had impact on memory, 46.9% on reading, writing and arithmetic skills and 58% children experienced emotional problems as a result of lockdown. Conclusions: COVID 19 lockdown has affected most of the aspects of cognitive development in the children. But major effects were seen on attention / concentration, inactivity, memory, reading, writing, arithmetic and emotional problem sections.