The Effect of the Covid 19 Pandemic Process on the Neuromotor Developments of 6-24 Month-old Babies: A Cross-sectional Study From Turkey

Development; It covers the areas of physical, mental, emotional and social development. Development in one area affects other areas as well. Infancy is the period in which children grow and develop the fastest. Babies need many environmental factors and stimulants in order to have a healthy developmental process. For the Covid 19 pandemic, many restrictions have been made in Turkey to reduce the spread of the epidemic and to maintain social distance between people. It has been suggested that individuals practice their own social isolation. It has also caused babies who spend their time at home during the pandemic process to be deprived of environmental stimuli. In current studies in the literature, it has been reported that the COVID-19 pandemic affects infant and child development significantly and negatively. It has been reported that the risk of delay in children who have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic is especially in the fine motor and communication areas. There is a limited number of studies in the literature on this subject. No study was found in Turkey. The aim of this study is to evaluate the neuromotor development of infants in early childhood (6-24 months) in the Covid-19 pandemic and to reveal the effects of the pandemic process. Denver II Developmental Screening Test was used to evaluate the neuromotor development of healthy infants aged 6-24 months, who applied to the healthy pediatric outpatient clinic of Acıbadem Altunizade Hospital, and Alberta Infant Motor Scale was used to evaluate gross motor functions.