Thread by @Telegraph

👶 Around 700,000 babies were born in Britain in the last year

Their first interactions with other people have been largely behind a mask.

➡️ How will a year of staying at home and social distancing impact this generation’s development? telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…

👶“Our first child saw hundreds of people in her first six months. Our second, who was born last May, probably saw less than 20,” says Atalanta Hicks Beach.

🗣️"When we finally took her to meet another baby in the park, she was so happy. It was almost like she was high"

👶Hannah Rock’s secondborn son Abe has never known a world without social distancing.

He’s missed all the rhyme times and playgroups his brother enjoyed.

🗣️"There was a period where he would be hysterical if we took him inside a building that wasn’t his home,” says Hannah

🧠Last march, fMRI scans revealed that babies begin to seek out human faces within hours of their birth

“Faces are such an important, rich source of information,” says Pasco Fearon, chair of developmental psychopathy at University College London

🚫During the pandemic, we have all been socially and environmentally starved.

While babies have a lifetime to make up for this, development is not linear, says James Goodwin, director of the Brain Health Network

👶“The early years are exceptionally important. You’ve got this environmentally thirsty, living entity inside the cranium, whose development is totally dependent on nutrition, social interaction," says Mr Goodwin

📈Exposure to parental stress and depression – which has risen dramatically this year – could also have an impact on newborns

Research by the Parent-Infant Foundation found almost 7/10 felt their ability to cope with their baby had been impacted as a result of Covid

➡️However, experts agree that babies are impressively resilient.

🤗They believe that, as restrictions lift, the vast majority will thrive on the new experiences they’ve been deprived of for so long

telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness…