코로나19 이후 영유아 발달 및 학습 격차 해소 방안 연구(Ⅱ)

Abstract

This study considered young children who experienced the pandemic during their early life in 2022 when the lasting influence of the COVID-19 pandemic had been realized. This study examines this impact on their current status and progress of change not only in their physical and mental health's growth, development and learning, but also in child-rearing households' caring, nurturing and education.(1st year) The purpose of the 2nd year (2023) study is to analyze cumulative factors of influence on young children, and to suggest support measures accordingly by following up and investigating longitudinally over two years. To this end, this study analyzed domestic and foreign-related studies and conducted in-depth interviews with the parents of children participating in the development test. In-depth interviews were conducted with clinical experts to understand the actual problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the Korean version of the Wechsler Early Intelligence Test (K-WPPSI-IV) and the Vineland Adaptation Behavior Test (K-Vineland-II) were conducted in the same manner as in the first year to track changes in children's development due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The parents and teachers of the child were surveyed on family and institutional (school) variables. Additionally, a longitudinal analysis of this study and the results of the first year was conducted, and the characteristics of the group were compared by analyzing the age cohort of the Korean Children's Panel. The main results of this study were summarized as follows. First, it is reported that obesity and prevalence rate have increased in terms of physical and health development due to increased media exposure time, sedentary lifestyle, and irregular lifestyle and sleep as a result of analyzing domestic and international studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, there are concerns that environmental changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affect the development of young children in terms of language and cognitive development. Whereas, reading with children using the media has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and parents also reported that they value the practice of literacy and recognize the value of reading. On one hand, the unexpected global COVID-19 pandemic was a stressful situation that everyone, including children, had to endure in terms of social and emotional development. In particular, it has had a greater impact on low-income families who are struggling economically and emphasizes the need for early intervention focused on specific groups because this environment has worked as a greater stress factor for children. Second, the result of in-depth interviews with participating parents and clinical experts in this study confirms that social changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were linked to changes in the domestic nurturing environment. As a result, the social changes via the pandemic acted as a factor in children's overall development and learning. On one hand, the use of masks raised concerns about delays in language development in infancy in terms of language development, however, it is worth noting that the problem of delayed language development is decreasing and the gaps in expression vocabulary depending on the parenting environment are being found. On the other hand, it is found that difficulties such as anxiety, lethargy, difficulty in communication, and preference for playing alone due to the COVID-19 pandemic were commonly experienced regardless of the domestic economic situation when it comes to social-emotional development. Third, as a result of comparing the perceptions of parents and teachers on the overall development of children in the 3-year-old class and the first grader of elementary school, children in the 3-year-old class tended to have high parental awareness in general, and the gap in perception between parents and teachers in emotional development was larger than in other areas. On the other hand, first graders of elementary school did not generally have a significant difference in perception between parents and teachers, but teachers' perception of physical development was higher than that of parents. In addition, the cognitive development score of children in the 3-year-old class was the same as in the first year. The score of the combination of adaptation behavior was also at the average level, but the area of life skills tended to be a little higher. Meanwhile, the cognitive development of first graders in elementary school was also at the average level, and the score of the combination of adaptation behavior was also found to be higher than the average level. Fourth, comparing the cognitive development and adaptation behavior of participants in the first year and second years drew a result that cognitive development did not show a significant difference between the first year and the second year overall. However, the statistic score decreased significantly in the second year compared to the first year regarding the first graders of elementary school in the language comprehension index. Adaptation behavior was also found to have a significant difference in scores between the first and second years overall. In the area of adaptation behavior combination scores, it was significantly higher in the second year than in the first year in particular areas of life skills and social skills. Fifth, it was confirmed that there are concerning mechanisms to affect child development due to the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing the data of the Korean Children's Panel as a comparison group of this study group. In addition to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, structural unemployment and income decline due to economic contraction and economic structural changes may intensify the slump of physical development and cognitive development (academic and learning) of children, which is feared to deal a bigger blow to the vulnerable groups with unstable employment. Based on the results of this study, henceforth tasks were presented by dividing them into support for children's developmental areas, parental support as a family environmental factor, tracking and supporting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the vulnerable social groups, and establishing a medium- and long-term monitoring system for the generation who suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic in their early lives. First, areal support for children's development suggested language development should be followed longitudinally, expanded peer relationship (social development) opportunities, priority support for children's emotional development, and physical activity (exercise) opportunities. Second, parental support suggested the need to provide education and information for the formation of children's basic lifestyle, customized support for each child's development period, enhance parents' media literacy, and ease the psychological burnout of the main caregiver. Third, support for vulnerable social groups is presented to strengthen support for the development and basic learning of vulnerable children, expand the budget for supporting the vulnerable, and ease the gap in the overall quality of life. Finally, To establish a development monitoring system for the COVID-19 generation, it is suggested that development monitoring linked to young children health checkups, linked support for young children development with the Metropolitan and Provincial Offices of Education, childcare support center, and regional Dreamstart Center and promotion of follow-up research in consideration of gap factors in development and learning.