For the past two years, the world has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic that causes an acute respiratory illness with heterogeneous systemic symptoms; therefore, the world has gone into lockdown as a social distancing measure to curb the spread of the virus. However, one cannot dismiss the adverse effects of this pandemic, as it affected us mentally and physically, even as the world is slowly going back to normal. The aim of the report is to state extensively the impacts of the pandemic on human cognitive functioning in children.
Jean Piaget (1952) pioneered the theory of cognitive development whereby he suggested that intelligence changes with the growth of the child, as the child, not only acquire knowledge but makes mental representations of the world, which are called schemas. Piaget introduced four stages of development, the sensorimotor stage which occurs from birth to the age of two years (object permanence, memory is developed by the end), the preoperational stage which happens between the ages of two to seven (language use matures, memory and imagination are developed), the concrete operational which happens from ages seven to eleven (logical thinking/problem solving), and the formal operation stage (abstract thinking) that happens from age 12 and above.
Another contributor to the theory of cognitive development was Lev Vygotsky (1978), who argued that cognitive abilities are socially guided and constructed. Culture, as such, mediates the formation and development of distinct abilities like learning, memory, problem-solving, and attention.
Relevant Cognitive Process in Children.
Some of the important cognitive processes that are to be developed in children are attention, memory, problem-solving, and learning. These processes or skills are crucial for the enabling of processing sensory information and learning evaluation ways to evaluate, analyze, recall, make comparisons, and understand cause and effect. According to Vygotsky, two other important cognitive skills are play and language.
Attention is the ability to control limited computational resources. William James states “it is the possession by the mind, in clear, and vivid form, of one out of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought”. There are three main attentional models.
Broadbent (1958) proposed a model of attention called The Early Selection Model, which suggests that there is a sensory buffer whereby all sensory stimuli at any given time. Sensory input is chosen based on the physical attributes of the stimuli, which then pass through a filter. He believed that this filter was necessary for the prevention of information-processing system overload. Input is kept temporarily in the sensory buffer until they go through processing; if not processed, they decay.
Treisman A. (1964) proposed a Selective Attention Theory/Attenuation Theory, whereby, although the model agreed with Broadbent’s theory, but argued that the sensory inputs that were unprocessed are then attenuated rather than decayed. Attenuation is the process whereby unattended/unprocessed sensory inputs are processed but with reduced intensity.
Deutsch and Deutsch (1963) proposed a late selection model that suggests that all information, processed or unprocessed, goes through analysis for meaning after which selection of sensory input then starts. All information is processed first and selection then takes place after the input has been analyzed. Selection for attention is closer to the responses rather than the input. Selection takes place based on the pertinence/relevance of the information with the most relevant information most likely selected.
Memory in neuroscience is the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information (Squire, 2009). There are 3 categories of memory, sensory memory, long-term memory, and short-term memory; they all have unique attributes. Sensory memory is a memory that is not consciously controlled; short-term memory is a memory that holds information for a limited period of time, while long-term memory can store an indefinite amount of information for a long period of time. Children learn about memory by talking with others and also by experiencing life events in their environments.
There are different models of memory; the multi-store model was proposed by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968). This model assumes that there are three separate memory stores (sensory, short-term, and long-term) and that information is transferred between them in a linear sequence. The three types of memory encode information differently; they also differ in how much information can be stored and the duration of this storage. This model is described as a computer that has an input system, a processing system, and an output system. Information is detected by the sense organs and enters the sensory memory, if paid attention to, the information is transferred to the short-term memory and then transferred to the long-term memory if a kind of meaning is given to the information. The strength of this model is that it shows a good understanding of the structure and the process of short-term memory. The criticism of this model is that it is oversimplified and that research has shown that both short-term and long-term memory does not operate in a single, uniform fashion as the model suggests.
Another model is the Working Model of Memory which was proposed by Baddeley & Hitch (1974). They proposed that short-term memory is not just a simple unitary store, but has different components like central, executive, and visuospatial components, while it is improbable that different kinds of knowledge, like remembering how to play a game and remembering what one did the day before, are stored within a single long-term memory store in the case of long-term memory. As such, this model proposes three types of long-term memory which are; episodic memory; which is the memory of events; procedural memory; which is the memory of how to do things; and semantic memory: which is general knowledge.
Problem-solving is defined as the behavioral process that is characterized by the tendency to recognize a problem, reflect on possible solutions, make decisions and take action.
Learning in psychology means a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. Cognitive learning is an active style of learning that helps in maximizing brain potential, thereby increasing its capacity to store information.
Language is a communication system involving using words and systematic rules to organize words to relay information. B.F. Skinner (1957) argued that language acquisition could be explained with the concept of operant conditioning. Chomsky (1959) argued that language is innate and that we have innate genes and brain parts dedicated to the acquisition of language.
Play is an activity that involves putting objects in new combinations or roles which are then acted out and have a positive effect on children. It is a valuable activity that yields positive outcomes for cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development, (Ginsburg, 2007) Piaget (1962) says that play is a way that children assimilated the external world to match their imaginations, while Vygotsky (1967) argued that play helps strengthen children’s cognitive development and higher mental function.
Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Cognitive Processes in Children
As stated previously, the covid-19 pandemic has affected us and still affects us today, with many researchers revealing the effects of the pandemic, be it economically, mentally, and even physically. Research has also predicted the way of life moving forward with vaccines being produced and administered, and as stated before, the aim of this report is to outline the effects of this pandemic on the cognitive processing of children. Dr. Dumitiu et al., (2017) have been retrieving relevant data on infant development to analyze the communication and motor skills of babies from birth to six months. They analyzed whether there were any neurodevelopmental differences between babies born before the pandemic and during the pandemic and compared the results the results showed that infants born during the pandemic scored lower on tests of gross motor, fine motor, and communication skills compared to babies born before the pandemic regardless of if the mother contracted the disease. Previous studies suggest that the pandemic-related during pregnancy could be affecting fetal brain development negatively.
Deoni S. et al., (2021) used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study how environmental factors shaped brain development in children, tracking their motor, visual, and language skills. By comparing yearly averages and variances from infants’ neurodevelopmental scores, it was discovered that the scores during the pandemic were much worse than those of previous years. Davis C.et al., (2021) examined the effects of the disruption of access to early childhood education and care on language and executive functions in 8 to 36-month-old infants. It was discovered that there was receptive vocabulary growth and growth in cognitive executive functions in infants that continued early childhood education during the pandemic.
Another study demonstrated by Raghunathan R. S, et al., (2021) investigated changes in children’s self-regulatory behavior and attention before and during the Covid-19 pandemic and discovered that there was a significant decrease in children’s self-regulation and attention during the pandemic. With covid-19 still in season, e-learning has become the most viable option to continue children’s education due to social-distancing measures, however, there have been concerns about brain development, although neuroplasticity of the brain helps deal with the sudden change, several studies show that multi-method screen exposure leads to reduced volume of the cortex with loss of integrity in the white matter region (Takeuch et al., 2018) and decreased grey matter in prefrontal regions, the right frontal pole and anterior cingulate cortex (Loh & Kanai, 2016), this impedes attentional competence, processing speed, verbal intelligence and sustained attention. Furthermore, searching, locating, and reading online content reduces the functional connectivity of regions around the temporal gyrus whose function is for long-term memory formation and retrieval of learned material (Liu et al., 2018). Missing out on educational opportunities, social interactions, and play with other children contributes to developmental delays (Deoni et al., 2021, Werner & Woessmann, 2021) as stated above, play is valuable for cognitive development.
Delayed language skills and social skills could be described as short term effects, as some critics of the research Deoni S. et al., (2021) had by using a study done by Zeanah C.H. et al., (2009) that showed that Romanian girls who started life in orphanages but were then adopted before 2.5 years were less likely to develop psychiatric problems at 4.5 years of age than those that remained in institutional care. They used this research as an argument to say that babies could catch up once the restrictions are lifted. However, due to negative effects on brain anatomy and function that deals with learning, memory, and concentration, the toxic stress of the pandemic could affect the areas of the brain that specializes in these function, causing learning and memory problems, concentration inhibition, (Carrion, V.G. et al., 2012).
Conclusion.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected all of us in ways that are still being studied, as it has just been two years since it occurred. Researchers are still figuring out and investigating its long effects on humans: physically, mentally, and cognition. The report summarises some of its effects on children’s cognition following the stages of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Similar pandemics have helped to compare the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to them, to see if there were similarities or differences in their effects. Like the SARS epidemic that occurred in 2003. Fan et al., (2021) discovered that the effects of exposure to SARS during early childhood were associated with delayed time to walking independently, saying a complete sentence, counting from 1 to 10, and undressing for urination, which is in line with the effects of the COVID pandemic, with respect to language problems, motor developments, etc. Although the research into the impact of this pandemic has been groundbreaking, there are still some limitations. For example, the pandemic is a fairly new event that is just two years of age, and since it is new, there are no longitudinal studies to see if the effects that researchers are seeing now will be long-term as the argument/critiques in the research of Deoni et al., (2021), there is no knowledge of if the effects of the pandemic that has been observed will be temporary, and these impairments will normalize when lockdowns and social distancing measures will be lifted.
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