If you’re five years old and you’re two years behind that means you’re at the level of a three-year-old.
I did that math in my head.
But just think of it for a second – think of how a person is going to develop from that point.
It’s not going to be “he’s 47 but only has the development of a 45-year-old.”
This is a generation that has been totally crippled.
Babies born in 2020 started life in the strange world of lockdown in a small bubble of people with faces hidden behind masks. Social experiences, such as seeing extended family, trips to the playground or mother and baby groups, could not happen. And struggling public services meant infants were likely to miss out on face-to-face appointments with a health visitor who might have been able to spot developmental difficulties early.
Those babies are now four years old, and in England are arriving at school for the first time this week. Experts say teachers should be braced to encounter – and tackle – problems ranging from poor speech and language development to social and emotional difficulties.
Similar problems have been seen in children who were very young during the pandemic and are already in the system.
“We’ve had an increase in reception children biting one another, throwing things, running off, spitting,” said the headteacher of a primary school in north-west England. He added they were often frustrated or struggled with taking turns, sharing, or following routines and listening in class.
“They don’t have the vocabulary to express what they are feeling,” he said. “They’re about two years behind when they arrive.”
Louisa Reeves, director of policy and evidence at the charity Speech and Language UK, said that, while most babies would get up and walk without parents practising with them, learning to talk and interact required more engagement.
“Ideally babies need to be exposed to many different people who talk to them, and have a broad range of experiences,” she said. “That didn’t happen in the pandemic.”
Masks meant “they weren’t even seeing people’s facial expressions, which help you to pick up whether they are joking or cross”.
While this lockdown was happening, Andrew Anglin was saying all of these things that are now being admitted.
The government sacrificed a generation of children, ostensibly to save people who are over the age of 80.
They didn’t really save anyone, but that’s what they were saying – “we have to sacrifice these kids to save 80-year-olds.”
Why is anyone 80 years old in the first place? Just die already. Enough is enough.
Remember this?