When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, most of the conversation was about hospitals, PPE and case numbers. Almost six years on, researchers are still uncovering the quieter, longer-lasting cost of those closures — and new evidence suggests one of the biggest casualties was the development of an entire generation of young children.
A new study led by researchers at Lancaster University, working with the universities of East Anglia and Durham, has found that the pandemic interfered with young children’s ability to regulate their own behaviour. The research, published in the journal Child Development, followed children’s “executive function” — the cluster of skills that allow a child to manage their behaviour, hold their focus and adjust to new situations — from around two-and-a-half years old up to six-and-a-half.
Reception-Age Children Hit Hardest
The findings point to one group in particular: children who had just started school when the first lockdown was announced. This group — starting reception at exactly the moment classrooms closed — showed the clearest slowdown in development. Reception is normally when children first learn to socialise properly, follow group routines and cope with the structure of a classroom, so losing that stage almost overnight appears to have had an outsized effect.
Compared with children who were still preschool-aged when the pandemic began, the reception-age group showed noticeably slower growth in self-regulation and mental flexibility over the following years. The researchers note this isn’t a gap that simply closed once schools reopened — it may still be affecting these children today.
Lead researcher Dr Eleanor Johns, from Lancaster University’s Department of Psychology, explained why the timing mattered so much. Starting school, she said, is a major developmental milestone: children are learning new routines, adjusting to classroom rules and building self-regulation skills alongside their peers. When schools shut virtually overnight, that whole process was interrupted at the worst possible moment.
What the Data Showed
The study’s key findings were:
- Early ability tends to stick. Children who scored well on executive function tests at two-and-a-half were generally still ahead by six-and-a-half, underlining just how much the earliest years matter.
- Home background matters. Children from lower-income households consistently scored lower on average — consistent with long-standing research linking parental education and home environment to child development.
- Covid’s effect stands on its own. Even once the researchers accounted for age and family background separately, the pandemic’s impact was still clearly visible: reception-age children made noticeably smaller gains in executive function than children who were still in preschool at the time.
Dr Johns summarised the likely reason: a structured school environment and regular contact with peers appear to play a central role in building executive function, and when that structure and contact disappeared, development slowed for the children who needed it most at that exact stage.
The research team’s conclusion is a sobering one — this now looks like a generation of children who may need extra support from teachers, schools and health services for years to come.
Why This Matters for Households Thinking About Preparedness
This study is a useful, evidence-based reminder that lockdowns are never a cost-free tool. They protect public health in the short term, but they carry real, measurable, long-tail consequences for the people who live through them — particularly children at sensitive developmental stages.
For anyone thinking seriously about household resilience, that’s an important lesson to build into your planning, not an afterthought:
- Lockdowns don’t just disrupt supply chains and routines — they disrupt development. If you have young children, any future disruption to schooling or nursery isn’t just an inconvenience to manage around your own work; it’s a developmental event with knock-on effects that can last years.
- A “stay at home” plan needs structure, not just supplies. Stockpiling food and essentials solves the logistics problem. It does far less for a five-year-old who has lost the daily routines, peer contact and classroom structure that build focus, self-regulation and social skills. Building some form of structured routine, social contact (even virtual) and predictability into any household emergency plan matters just as much as having tins in the cupboard.
- Vulnerable households need extra thought. The finding that children from lower-income households were hit hardest is a reminder that any future lockdown planning — whether from government or within your own household — should think about who has the least capacity to absorb the disruption, and plan support accordingly.
- The next crisis may not be a pandemic. Flooding, a severe winter, a major infrastructure failure or a future disease outbreak could all trigger extended periods at home. The Covid experience gives us a genuine evidence base for what that does to children, and a strong argument for building deliberate structure and stimulation into any household emergency plan, not just food and water.
Preparedness isn’t only about ticking off a supply list — it’s about understanding the full range of costs a prolonged disruption can bring, so you can plan around them properly. This research is a timely reminder that the human and developmental cost of lockdowns deserves just as much attention as the practical one. Get The Book – Preparing for Lockdown
Source: Lancaster University — “Children’s development set back years by Covid lockdowns,” 4 March 2026.