Play Could Help Reduce Covid-19 Slump in Learning

The potential loss could require some children to repeat a grade. However, play with family members can stem decline and support parental mental health.

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We should pay extra attention to the home schooling and care of disadvantaged children during the Covid-19 crisis. Their potential loss of learning could require that some students repeat an entire grade. However, play with families, as well as government help with computer access, can help mitigate the damage.

These students are at particular risk of a ‘Covid-19 slump’ in learning compared with their middle-income peers. Addressing this danger demands government action to improve access to laptops and the internet. Parents and extended families can also help by marshalling unrealized capacities to play with and stimulate children, even while they are cooped up at home, with no museums, no park and little outside space.

Grandparents can play with children virtually

Grandparents can give parents a break by video chatting with young children to read them a story. Research shows that it works almost as well as reading in person. They can also get out the building blocks that many grandparents have at home, and young children can match what they are making at the other end, that’s good for STEM skills. At a distance, they can still create puzzles, a quiz, play games, or even visit a museum virtually and try to find an exhibit, like in the movie “National Treasure.”