How Parents with Toddlers Managed to Assist Them Intellectually During the COVID-19

Pandemic

The SARS COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented disruptions in typical life

functions. This disaster created many changes to the normal lifestyles across the globe. One of

the main disruptive measures involved restricting movement and social contact among

individuals and groups (UN, 2020). As a result, small children and toddlers were adversely

impacted by this requirement to abstain from mixing with other people, especially their peers and

playmates. Research evidence asserts that movement is critical to a child’s intellectual and

cognitive development (Moore et al., 2020; UK Parliament, 2021). Besides, it is challenging to

prevent a child from playing when they are already used to such behavior. The difficulty in

explaining why their parents and guardians prevent them from mingling with their friends

resulted in emotional challenges for these vulnerable individuals (Relief Web, 2021; Araujo et

al., 2021). Parents with toddlers were compelled to be creative and innovative to ensure their

children were occupied with beneficial activities throughout the pandemic period. According to

CDC (2021), parenting behavior is essential to the positive cognitive development of their

children. Consequently, various initiatives are critical to promoting cognitive and intellectual

development to ease the pandemic’s consequences on toddlers (Araujo et al., 2021; UNICEF,

2020). Limited research is available due to the pandemic’s ongoing status, but various child

cognitive and intellectual development measures enabled coping. Parents with toddlers enabled

their children to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through creative games,

teaching styles, and interactions to keep them engaged and prevent them from contracting the

virus.