Michael Ejercito wrote:
> HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
>> Michael Ejercito wrote:
>>> HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
>>>> Michael Ejercito wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1f6fygf/how_did_the_pandemic_impact_babies_starting/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> How did the pandemic impact babies starting school as children now?
>>>>> 1 day ago
>>>>>
>>>>> Share
>>>>> Vanessa Clarke
>>>>> Education reporter
>>>>> Fiona Young A baby in a blue sleepsuit is lying in a moses basket. Above
>>>>> the basket his father's hand is holding an ipad and on the screen there
>>>>> is a couple in a garden waving helloFiona Young
>>>>> Baby Elijah, who was born in the strictest lockdown, met his
>>>>> grandparents for the first time online
>>>>> On 25 March 2020, Fiona and Ben Young drove to their local maternity
>>>>> unit through London’s empty streets. When they arrived, security guards
>>>>> sent them to the back entrance. It was day three of England's first
>>>>> lockdown and the front was surrounded by patients being treated by
>>>>> doctors in hazmat suits.
>>>>> Two days later, after a long labour, they welcomed baby Elijah.
>>>>> Delighted and exhausted, they left the hospital and headed home, full of
>>>>> anticipation over their new life as parents.
>>>>> But because of lockdown, it was far from what they expected.
>>>>> "No-one was allowed to visit us for months - there were no newborn
>>>>> cuddles with family," Fiona recalls.
>>>>> "I had a number to ring if there was an emergency, which didn’t work. We
>>>>> had no health visitor and no midwives. Our first visitor was a friend
>>>>> who walked four hours across London to sit in our garden."
>>>>> Elijah, now four and about to start school, is one of tens of thousands
>>>>> of babies born during the Covid pandemic. He is also one of 200 children
>>>>> being studied as a 'lockdown baby'.
>>>>> The Bicycle (Born in Covid Year, Core Lockdown Effects) study, which
>>>>> launched in July, is looking at whether the lockdowns had an impact on
>>>>> children's talking and thinking skills.
>>>>> Based at London's City University, it also involves five other English
>>>>> universities.
>>>>> A girl with curly hair is smiling at the camera in a light blue jumper
>>>>> More than a third of the children going into reception at Elizabeth
>>>>> Selby have speech and language needs
>>>>> "Some children may have benefited from more time at home with their
>>>>> parents and some children might have been negatively impacted," Prof
>>>>> Lucy Henry of City University explains.
>>>>> "They may be learning words more slowly or their fine motor skills may
>>>>> possibly be behind.
>>>>> "The real question is: who was affected and what can we do to support
>>>>> them as they go into their school lives?"
>>>>> Reduced interactions with family members and the loss of access to
>>>>> services such as health visitors has had a serious impact on the speech
>>>>> and language of some of these children, initial research by the
>>>>> University of Leeds found at the end of 2023.
>>>>> In Bethnal Green, London, twins Aqil and Fawaz were just eight weeks old
>>>>> when the pandemic hit.
>>>>> Their mother, Fahmeda Ahmed, lived in a second-floor flat with her
>>>>> husband and their two older children - Hasan, four, and two-year-old
>>>>> Khaijah.
>>>>> "It was just the same day over and over again," she said. "We couldn't
>>>>> go out, we couldn’t socialise, we couldn’t invite friends over and we
>>>>> couldn't go anywhere with the kids."
>>>>> A boy in a grey hat and a stripy navy jumper sits beside a lady in a
>>>>> black and white dress and a black hijab. They are both holding an orange
>>>>> pencil and writing. They are in a classroom sitting at a yellow table
>>>>> with yellow seats and red blinds behind them
>>>>> Fahmeda and her son Aqil had regular pre-school catch up sessions to
>>>>> help him with his progress
>>>>> Fahmeda bought an inflatable swimming pool for the balcony to try and
>>>>> keep her older children entertained.
>>>>> She attempted to homeschool her four-year-old, who had just started
>>>>> reception, but he completely stopped talking.
>>>>> And then there was baby Aqil. He was having difficulty swallowing and
>>>>> Fahmeda tried for months to get a face-to-face appointment with a doctor.
>>>>> Eventually, at three months, he was diagnosed with tracheomalacia, a
>>>>> condition where the walls of a child’s windpipe collapse. He needed a
>>>>> minor operation.
>>>>> Check out BBC Tiny Happy People's pages on language development for
>>>>> three- to four- and four- to five-year-olds
>>>>> Covid inquiry investigates impact on children
>>>>> Child speech delays increase following lockdowns
>>>>> How will museums of tomorrow tell the Covid story?
>>>>> “I was so scared going into the hospital because you would hear stories
>>>>> that you would catch [Covid]," Fahmeda said.
>>>>> "And I remember when Aqil was going into theatre, I was so upset. There
>>>>> was a nurse there and she said ‘I'm so sorry. I can't hug you’."
>>>>> Four years on, Aqil and Fawaz are healthy young boys, about to start
>>>>> reception at Elizabeth Selby Infants' School in Bethnal Green.
>>>>> But they both have speech and language needs.
>>>>> Their two-year child development check was delayed, they weren't able to
>>>>> attend any baby classes and their first year involved very little
>>>>> interaction with the outside world.
>>>>> Fahmeda believes all these factors have had a lasting effect, and
>>>>> experts agree.
>>>>> "Children need opportunities to go out into the world and have new
>>>>> experiences and with those new experiences come new words - but that is
>>>>> happening less during the cost-of-living crisis and it happened less
>>>>> during the pandemic," says Jane Harris, head of children's charity
>>>>> Speech and Language UK.
>>>>> A teacher with brown hair holds up a large book to a class of
>>>>> pre-schoolers sitting on a colourful mat with a bug pattern, listening
>>>>> to the story. Many are sitting with their legs crossed with their hands
>>>>> together.
>>>>> The school has employed a speech and language therapist for its
>>>>> pre-schoolers for the first time
>>>>> Prof Catherine Davies, from the University of Leeds, who is also
>>>>> involved in the study, says many of the safety nets for families like
>>>>> Fahmeda's were taken away during the pandemic.
>>>>> “The education systems weren't there, health and medical support was not
>>>>> there, their interaction with their wider social networks wasn't there,"
>>>>> she said.
>>>>> One third of pre-schoolers (34%) at Elizabeth Selby had speech and
>>>>> language needs during the last school year - up from a quarter (25%) in
>>>>> 2020, according to the school.
>>>>> This year, the school has had to employ a speech and language therapist
>>>>> for its pre-school class for the first time.
>>>>> In June, 22,952 children were waiting 19 to 52 weeks for a speech and
>>>>> language therapy appointment, and 5,832 children were waiting over a
>>>>> year, according to NHS England.
>>>>> The Department for Education in England says it will be focusing on high
>>>>> quality early education and is continuing the Nuffield Early Language
>>>>> Intervention programme for another year.
>>>>> “If I could, I'd have a speech and language teacher in five days a week
>>>>> - and I would still have a waiting list," says Shahi Ahmed, head teacher
>>>>> at Elizabeth Selby.
>>>>> "But I have to think about the budget and how that impacts the school."
>>>>> Mr Ahmed says there is a "massive increase" in the number of children
>>>>> needing help with toilet training, which takes teachers away from
>>>>> teaching. The school is now bringing in outside agencies to help support
>>>>> parents.
>>>>> And among all of this, attendance is falling, which Mr Ahmed says is
>>>>> important as it sets "routine and expectations".
>>>>> A man with brown hair and a beige shirt sits at a table smiling at a
>>>>> young girl with curly hair and a leopard body warmer and beige woollen
>>>>> cardigan. She is playing a blue drum and smiling back.
>>>>> Lots of families haven't had health visitors or access to GP appointments
>>>>> Mr Ahmed believes the increase in children needing more help is
>>>>> "absolutely" a direct result of the pandemic.
>>>>> "They didn’t have the chance to interact with other children or even
>>>>> just go out or have visitors to the house," he says.
>>>>> "They've been limited to what's around them - and that has caused a gap
>>>>> in their social interaction skills."
>>>>> Thankfully, Fahmeda says her twin boys have already benefited from their
>>>>> time in Elizabeth Selby's pre-school classes.
>>>>> "Fawaz has changed completely - he never used to call me mum," she says,
>>>>> wiping her tears away.
>>>>> "It's so nice to hear. You might think I'm being silly, but that’s so
>>>>> amazing and it’s because of the teachers."
>>>>> As for Elijah, his first interactions with family members were all on Zoom.
>>>>> "We would hold up the iPad to his face and introduce him but he wasn’t
>>>>> really paying much attention," Fiona said.
>>>>> "I think he saw the lights and colour but I don’t think he understood he
>>>>> was meeting humans."
>>>>> He didn't attend any baby classes as they had all been cancelled. "He
>>>>> spent the first three months solely with us," she said.
>>>>> Elijah was diagnosed with tongue tie when he was born. Fiona and Ben
>>>>> were told by a midwife that they would be better off getting tongue-tie
>>>>> surgery, also known as a lingual frenotomy, privately, as there would be
>>>>> a long wait on the NHS.
>>>>> "The first day I came back from hospital I was phoning around
>>>>> frantically to find someone who could do it privately but no-one was
>>>>> allowed to physically come in - it wasn’t legal for them to come in and
>>>>> do the operation," Fiona explained.
>>>>> Elijah finally had the operation when he was two-months-old.
>>>>> Katie Monnelly A young girl in a yellow dress and hairband is sitting on
>>>>> a couch and over her shoulder we can see a pink ipad with a game with
>>>>> two grey squares. Her hand is ready to touch the game. Katie Monnelly
>>>>> Over the next year, the Bicycle project will be using interactive games
>>>>> to study children born during the strictest lockdown
>>>>> The long-term impact of Elijah's early years remain to be seen but it
>>>>> was certainly a "tricky" time for his parents.
>>>>> Two years after Elijah's birth, Fiona and Ben were back in the same
>>>>> maternity room, welcoming a baby girl.
>>>>> “It was a completely different experience, both in the hospital and
>>>>> after," Fiona said.
>>>>> "My mum saw Amelia within 12 hours and was giving her newborn cuddles."
>>>>> The couple volunteered to take part in the Bicycle study because they
>>>>> want to help researchers understand exactly how the lockdowns affected
>>>>> the youngest members of society.
>>>>> It's hoped the results will help answer one pressing question - if it
>>>>> happens again, what should we do differently?
>>>>
>>>> In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
>>>> GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
>>>> secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
>>>> us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
>>>> pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
>>>> 100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
>>>> appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
>>>>
>>>> Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
>>>> COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
>>>> rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
>>>> moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
>>>> contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
>>>> "convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
>>>> self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
>>>> Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
>>>> scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
>>>> Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
>>>> combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
>>>> that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
>>>> longer effective.
>>>>
>>>> Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
>>>> https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ
>>>> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
>>>>
>>>> So how are you ?
>>>
>>> I am wonderfully hungry!
>>
>> While wonderfully hungry in the Holy Spirit, Who causes (Deuteronomy
>> 8:3) us to hunger, I note that you, Michael, are rapture ready (Luke
>> 17:37 means no COVID just as eagles circling over their food have no
>> COVID) and pray (2 Chronicles 7:14) that our Everlasting (Isaiah 9:6)
>> Father in Heaven continues to give us "much more" (Luke 11:13) Holy
>> Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) so that we'd have much more of His Help to
>> always say/write that we're "wonderfully hungry" in **all** ways
>> including especially caring to "convince it forward" (John 15:12) with
>> all glory (Psalm112:1) to GOD (aka HaShem, Elohim, Abba, DEO), in
>> the name (John 16:23) of LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen.
>>
>> Laus DEO !
>
> Thank you for noting that I have no COVID.

Just please do likewise as our LORD Jesus & I have done for you,
Michael, and http://go.WDJW.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) to be
https://bit.ly/Wonderfully_Hungrier more blessed by GOD right now
(Luke 6:21a).