Children born over the past year of lockdowns – at a time when the Government has prevented babies from seeing elderly relatives and other extended family members, from socialising at parks or with the children of their parent’s friends, and from studying the expressions on the faces behind the masks of locals in indoor public spaces – have significantly reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to children born before, according to a new U.S. study. Tests on early learning, verbal development and non-verbal development all produced results that were far behind those from the years preceding the lockdowns.
The Guardian has more.
With limited stimulation at home and less interaction with the world outside, pandemic-era children appear to have scored shockingly low on tests designed to assess cognitive development, said lead study author Sean Deoni, Associate Professor of Paediatrics (Research) at Brown University.
In the decade preceding the pandemic, the mean IQ score on standardised tests for children aged between three months and three years of age hovered around 100, but for children born during the pandemic that number tumbled to 78, according to the analysis, which is yet to be peer-reviewed. …
The study included 672 children from the state of Rhode Island. Of these, 188 were born after July 2020 and 308 were born prior to January 2019, while 176 were born between January 2019 and March 2020. The children included in the study were born full-term, had no developmental disabilities and were mostly white.
Those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds fared worse in the tests, the researchers found.
The biggest reason behind the falling scores is likely the lack of stimulation and interaction at home, said Deoni. “Parents are stressed and frazzled… that interaction the child would normally get has decreased substantially.”
Whether these lower cognitive scores will have a long-term impact is unclear. In the first few years of life, the foundations for cognition are laid, much like building a house – it’s easier to add rooms or flourishes when you’re building the foundation, Deoni said. “The ability to course-correct becomes smaller, the older that child gets.”
Given this data comes from a relatively affluent part of the U.S., where social support and unemployment benefits are generous, the fear is that things could be worse in poorer parts of the country and the world, he added.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Lockdown enthusiast Stuart Ritchie is sceptical about these findings.
Sorry, but there's no way the absolutely massive IQ difference in this study is real. An average IQ of 100 for kids born before the pandemic compared to an average of 79 during it? No – sorry, just too huge an effect to be plausible. https://t.co/o1SwlGuIT0
— Stuart Ritchie(@StuartJRitchie) August 13, 2021
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I know how people always say that the period they’re living in is the worst ever, but I think this time it’s true. It feels like it’s all coming to a head. They’ve been trying for ages to bring down the US, now it’s teetering on the brink, ready to fall. They’ve been trying for ages to indoctrinate children, now they hold control over the schools. They’ve been trying for ages to dumb down the population, they have succeeded, as we can see. They’ve been trying for ages to restrict our freedom, they have nearly taken all of it away from us.
There really isn’t much left for us to do. We cannot argue about this, cause we have nowhere to argue about it. The media is in their pocket and thoroughly hostile to the people. Social media is the place where the censorship started, so no hope there either. We can’t meet up in person cause the police shows up. Even Speaker’s Corner has been taken over by extremists. We can protest all we want, government doesn’t care at all, and there’s nothing we can do about it. We cannot argue our way out of this. So what is left, if words no longer work? Do we just lie there and accept it? Might not be exactly on topic, but fits the mood:
Or maybe the words uttered by a great man, on the edge of disaster:
Lockdowns are evil. Pure and simple
Sinister threat of Blair’s vaccine apartheid By Journeyman
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/sinister-threat-of-blairs-vaccine-apartheid/
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“Control over the schools”.
But interestingly a lot of people have home schooled for the first time. I wonder if they will come for the home schoolers.
Well, where they can’t get to kids through schools, there’s always social media.
Children really should be protected from (anti)social media. I’ve heard some horrific stories…
And while trying to further dumb down our children they try to convince us that by depriving kids of normal schooling (of the old normal face-to-face, non masked, non socially distanced variety), the kids are so resilient that they’ve performed even better in their exams this year! How can the populace not see through this? Oh yeah, because they’ve been dumbed down too, or brainwashed, or more likely both. I do think that people have become more stupid since being vaccinated, like they just can’t think logically. And I’m sorry, but any parent of a newborn who went along with all the “rules” and has deprived their baby of normal social interaction is a neglectful parent. Thankfully my daughter did the opposite, and my grandchild is thriving.
“…They’ve performed even better in their exams this year”
Sorry, that should have said non-exams.
Let me tell you, you’re not the only one to have that opinion. I, personally, don’t quite share it, as I think people have been stupid and illogical even before the vaccines.
On a lighter note—From ‘The Ginger Man’ by J P Donleavy— “So long as there’s drink, we’ll be alright.”
Well, they closed down pubs. Efforts are being made to reduce or even eliminate alcohol consumption. Before long we might end up like Sweden, with heavy taxes on alcohol. In my (albeit) limited experience with Sweden, the average size of a beer glass is 330ml, and costs 7-10 pounds.
The Guardian has been bleating about the ‘consequences’ of lockdown for a couple of weeks now…….
……..whilst totally ignoring the role it played in forcing the government to institute the severest regulation.
They appear to think that they can have it both ways.
Well, its readers do specialise in cognitive dissonance.
‘Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the left..’
(Apologies to Gerry Rafferty)
Cannot imagine he would not agree….?
I think it’s so that they can blame it on the unvaccinated. “Lockdowns are terrible and it’s all YOUR fault that they have to continue.”
Two words I assume you won’t hear from the Guardian – “Mea culpa”.
A reminder for all:
UK Government said they do not want to make it a criminal offence to lie in the House of Commons because “It is an important principle of the UK Parliament that Members of Parliament are accountable to those who elect them”. That seems a bit conflicted…
They then go on to say that “Freedom of speech in Parliament is an essential part of our democracy” despite the many restrictions on freedom of speech imposed in the UK.
So there you have it. The UK Government doesn’t think much of accountability. Let’s get this petition to 100,000 votes so it will be debated in Parliament.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/576886?reveal_response=yes
What births? Birth rates in England and Wales are parlous, and Scotchland is engaged in demographic suicide with a total fertility rate of just 1.37 in 2019, and doubtless lower now, despite the desperate gambit of importing fertile consumers.
Rates have been plunging steadily, 2020 was down sharply, and the first quarter of 2021 was down yet again. When’s the predicted “lockdown baby boom” going to arrive?
Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/provisionalbirthsinenglandandwales
Whilst there are other factors at play, especially in the last 2 years, I think population decline is an inevitable consequence of civilisation. The harsher the conditions, the higher the birth rate. So as far as I can tell, this is only natural. Of course, the biggest problem is globalism. Normally, the UK would be perfectly fine going from a population of 60m down to 30m. More space for everyone, more resources to go around, land and housing becomes more affordable. But the problem is that UK companies must compete with foreign companies, and they need the workforce to achieve that. And of course the government goes along with it, cause the UK should normally have 60m people, right? So they start importing people. Instead of a natural population decline due to abundance and space limitations we end up with population replacement.
Now, first of, no, I’m not suggesting any form of population control. I am merely describing a natural process and its consequences.
Secondly, as I said above, the last 2 years have been… atypical, to say the least. The population decline we’re seeing today may not be at all natural. We still haven’t even seen the effect vaccination has on birth rates. What if we see a sharp increase in miscarriages and birth defects at the end of 2021, start of 2022? Will everyone admit that the people pointing at Bill Gates’ population control speeches were on to something? I doubt it.
more affordable equals less income for the rent-seeking establishment..
This is why you see subsidised immigration on a massive scale. it simply is for their benefit not ours.
The problem with population reduction is the demographic pyramid. In our case, it’s now more of a trapezoid.
Ultimately it’s not even a question of competition, but simply of having enough people to spoon mush in at one end, and wipe the other.
Oh, you mean like after the black death. On the other hand, during the 20th century, prosperity increased massively along with population (and free trade – which is what the Peterloo business was about) until the manmade disaster of population control knocked that on the head (increasing prosperity in the so-called United States ceased about 1999).
At the end of the day, if you look at the basic resources – land, minerals, air, water etc. – there’s more than enough for everyone in the world, it’s just the way they are used and distributed that is the problem. Bad government and war is the issue, not this world, which was created and judged to be “very good”. (Gen 1: 31. See also Gen 1: 28)
I’m not saying things would be better either way, be it with more people or less people. I am simply saying that as civilizations get more advanced, population will start to decline at some point. We see it in Europe, and we see it in Japan, with the average age of the population going up, and birth rates dropping.
I seem to remember the fertility rate among atheists in Austria (one of the few places to measure this) was less than one. The evidence from China would appear to back that up…
I repeat my theory (I think) – three decades of economic growth from c. the late ’60’s as less children to care for, a decade of treading water as this is balanced out by decreasing numbers of productive workers (up to 2009), a decade of kicking the can down the road – and from 2019, decades of economic decline, kickstarted in Wuhan. An approximation obviously, but are we really going to get back to sane economics any time soon (demographics, interest rates, QE, debt, the CV shambles, etc.)?
Amazing how you can finally make some people sceptical…
Now he should apply it to the 26th most dangerous hobgoblin.
I’ve been concerned since the mask wearing has been all but mandatory and child development. Very young children bond to their mothers by facial recognition, is this mask wearing going to confuse babies/young children if their mothers facial situation changes?
This is going to lead to some very interesting psychological conditions in the future.
You could say interesting.
Or you could say catastrophic.
Remember these kids will be the folks running the nursing homes/hospitals/public services/country(?) of the future. If they’re unable to communicate normally it’ll have far reaching repercussions that will affect everyone who’s still alive.
No doubt, the gender disphoria business is just one of the conditions caused (or massively increased) by the extraordinary social experiments of the past half century or so.
Lockdowns are evil. Pure and simple
Sinister threat of Blair’s vaccine apartheid By Journeyman
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/sinister-threat-of-blairs-vaccine-apartheid/
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Lockdown enthusiast or not (plus the normal caveats about this sort of testing), the reservations expressed by Stuart Ritchie are valid. Scepticism twitches. A decrease of this order is unlikely in real terms if the testing is valid and reliable.
Much as I agree with the notion of profound damage done by lockdowns (and the rest), this smacks of a statistical artefact
I note the down vote – as usual no argument, just dumb incomprehension.
Rational scepticism cuts two ways. Just aping the simple-minded credulity of the Covid true believers doesn’t cut the mustard.
What down vote?
And don’t forget, nowt as queer as folk!
You may be right… on the other hand, it is very unusual to see anything published which contradicts the lockdown narrative. The whole system seems to be built against it. Strong evidence may have propelled the authors to risk their careers.
I imagine they’ll all be headed for a life in Politics, then?
Hahaha you read my mind!
They are producing exactly the type of children they need.
Well, well, what a surprise.
Very interesting on the effect of early years environment. So verbal skills reduced – much less exposure to the voices of those outside their families. Perhaps much less being talked to by, for example, grandmothers.
Motor skill reductions – were those worse in houses without gardens, or ones big enough to swing, jump, tricycle in? Were nursery schools shut for them for a while, certainly no mother and baby groups, so social skills with peers much reduced along with manual play…
Cognitive skills, not all reduced presumably. but I would guess experience builds many cognitive skills. Or maybe you’re just a bit frightened of strangers because you haven’t met many, so you don’t do well in the tests they give you. If this is right then children raised by loners might have some similar difficulties.