By: Article by Ryn Williams, Social Media Manager
As the year under COVID-19 wraps up, many people are excited to return to their regular routine. For adults, it may be simple: returning to work and the grocery store. For kids and teens, going back to school with the option of distant learning seems treacherous but doable. But what about new parents and their babies?
Don’t worry, because babies born in quarantine will likely be fine. Dr. Christopher Wolfe, an associate professor of psychology at Saint Leo University, stated that, “[Transition from quarantine] will be less difficult for an infant to two-year-old range.”
This is because of a phenomenon called Synaptic Pruning. Synaptic Pruning happens when a child reaches three-and-a-half. When a baby is born, their brains are constantly making connections to their surroundings. This isn’t an effective way of getting information; and when they reach three-and-a-half, their brain cuts everything that isn’t useful away. This is the cause for infant amnesia and is why most people don’t remember being a baby.
This means that quarantine babies likely won’t be impacted from staying inside all day. During this stage of life, the baby is focused on interacting with their parents, not cousins or family friends.
So, quarantine babies are fine. Older children may be affected.
“I’m worrying less for elementary school kids than I am for middle and high school kids,” Wolfe said, “Older kids are reaching the mature stage of the adult human animal, which is all about connection and other people. They’re cut off from one another.”
Social media is coming in handy for this problem.
“If we would have had this before social media, the detriment could be even more extensive, but social media is a connective point,” said Wolfe.
Online friends can (and do) have real benefits for people. Thinking of an act of friendship, whether or not it is in-person or online, lights up the same parts of the brain on an MRI, Wolfe cited.
So Zoom may not be that bad after all. Quarantine babies will be fine, but older kids may have some lasting effects – and that’s not necessarily a negative thing.
In every stage of development, children and adolescents make a choice. Erik Erikson, an American-German ego psychologist, developed a theory on psychosocial development. There are eight stages called “crisis points” in his theory. He believed that the personality is developed through the way that adolescents respond through the series of stages.
“There’s a crisis point in every stage of development,” said Wolfe. “It’s the big question or dilemma you must solve so you can move on, whether we isolate or look to others for help.”
So not only is there a world-wide crisis, nearly all children are going through their own personal developmental crises. This can be very overwhelming.
The choices that an adolescent makes now, under these strenuous times, will serve as a reference point for how they behave later if faced with similar conflicts.
It also may boil down to keeping a healthy routine during quarantine.
“Routine is a key component of cultural transmission,” according to Wolfe. “Doing the same thing over and over, the child learns the importance of that event.”
This means that a child learns better through repeated tasks. Going to bed at 8 p.m. every night enforces the habit of a good bedtime. Wolfe believes that healthy snack times are another routine that should be enforced with clear boundaries.
During childhood and teenage years, the frontal lobe, which is responsible for impulse control, isn’t fully developed. This is why adults, who do have a fully developed frontal lobe, are able to function better than a child would in these circumstances. Routine is key for child development, and a good routine is pivotal.
Recovery from quarantine may be a rocky road, but it isn’t impossible. Wolfe agreed.
“I think that we’re social animals, and we’re designed to work with one another. That hasn’t gone away in a year of limited interaction.”
