COVID-19 anxiety and early childhood development: Reflections from practitioners in early years settings

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact upon early childhood practice. This chapter presents reflections from discussions with practitioners based on their experiences through and coming out the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst acknowledging the extreme circumstances for the practitioners, children, families and the settings, the authors sought to value and share these contributions in a way that highlight developmentally appropriate practice speech around language delay, delays in physical development, relationship and self-regulation problems, mental health and well-being issues and children's safeguarding. The authors place a strong focus on young children's developmental outcomes, which should be a priority for early years research. The narratives presented should also be of interest to policymakers to aid them in developing strategies to ensure young children's holistic development.