They learned to babble to masked adults. They spent their toddler years on video calls with grandparents instead of at storytime in the local library. Many started preschool only to have it disrupted by quarantines or staffing shortages. Now, the first generation of children born during the COVID pandemic has entered kindergarten, and educators say they are meeting a cohort unlike any before.
When Lexia surveyed more than 200 kindergarten teachers working with early learners last fall, we wanted to understand what they were seeing in their classrooms. The responses offer both a clear-eyed look at the challenges and a sense of optimism about the path ahead.