O2013: Developmental Milestone Attainment of Israeli Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak since 2020 has greatly affected people’s lives worldwide, whether due to the demand for isolation, social distance or due to the significant impact on health and financial security. These phenomena may have an impact on the well-being, emotional state and cognitive abilities of parents and children. The primary objective of this population-based study is to explore the differences in developmental milestone attainment age of children aged 0-6 years during the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020 to October 2021), compared to a previous period (January 2014-February 2020).

Methods: Developmental screening is conducted regularly by trained public health nurses, from birth to the age of 6 years, in designated Maternal Child Health Clinics (MCHC’s). The evaluated milestones are of four developmental domains: social, language, gross and fine motor. We analyzed a cohort of 882,365 children aged 0-6 years, who visited MCHCs between 1/2014 and 10/2021 (>4.9M visits). Children with abnormal developmental potential were excluded: preterm infants, low birth weight ( < 2.5 kg), abnormal weight measurement (< percentage 3%), abnormal head circumference ( < 3% or >97%). We compared the normative attainment age of 59 milestones in the four developmental domains before and during the pandemic.

Results: During the pandemic period, 353,546 children had 838,029 developmental evaluation visits at the MCHCs (2.4±1.4 visits per child). The monthly number of developmental visits decreased during the pandemic by approximately 12%. Overall, milestones were attained at older age during COVID era, compared to pre-COVID (Figure 1). Delays were most prominent in language and social milestones at older age (>18 months).

Conclusion: We observed changes in milestone attainment age during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may indicate delayed development in the language and social skills of children. Further followup is required to assess whether these changes are transient or have longer term implications on children’s development.