The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 13 countries and 12 languages were evaluated at the beginning and end of the first lockdown period in their respective countries (from March to September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure and whose caregivers read more to them showed larger gains in vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES and other caregiver-child activities. Children also gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown; either caregivers were more aware of their child’s development or vocabulary development benefited from intense caregiver-child interaction during lockdown.

The RETAINER Collaborative Group reports the impact of COVID-19 on international elective inguinal hernia practice.

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many changes to clinical practice, including the introduction of remote clinics. Those familiar with remote clinics have reported benefits to their use, such as patient satisfaction and cost benefits; however, ongoing challenges exist, including delivering optimal patient-centred care. As a tertiary paediatric surgery unit in the UK, completing remote clinics was a new experience for most of our surgical team. We completed a service evaluation early into the COVID-19 pandemic aiming to define and address issues when delivering remote clinics in paediatric surgery. Remote clinics were observed (telephone and video), with follow-up calls to families following the consultations. Results Eight paediatric surgeons were observed during their remote clinics (telephone n = 6, video n = 2). Surgeons new to remote clinics felt their consultations took longer and were reluctant to discharge patients. The calls did not always occur at the appointed time, causing some upset by parents. Prescription provision and outpatient investigations led to some uncertainty within the surgical team. Families (n = 11) were called following their child’s appointment to determine how our remote clinics could be optimised. The parents all liked remote clinics, either as an intermediate until a face-to-face consultation or for continued care if appropriate. Our findings, combined by discussions with relevant managers and departments, led to the introduction of recommendations for the surgical team. An information sheet was introduced for the families attending remote clinics, which encouraged them to take notes before and during their consultations. Conclusions There must be strong support from management and appropriate departments for successful integration of remote clinics. Surgical trainees and their training should be considered when implementing remote clinics. Our learning from the pandemic may support those considering integrating remote clinics in the future.